Something Bigger
by GoofyGal2008
Summary: She wanted to be part of something bigger than herself. It was why she joined the Chicago PD. It was why she stayed in IA. And it was why, seven years after she first put on that badge, she now stood to lose everything and everyone she'd ever cared about.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** My first time writing for a new show...I apologize in advance if I get a name wrong or mix up a fact, as there aren't a lot of sites to look up details like I normally would! I haven't yet seen episodes 6 or 7, so this story may not include some of those details.

I'm anticipating that this story will probably have somewhere between ten and fifteen chapters. This first chapter begins about a year and a half ahead of where the show is now, so please keep that in mind in later chapters.

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><p>The late summer sun was just beginning to set over the Chicago skyline as the dark sedan pulled up across the street from the suburban home, a marked police car trailing a few minutes behind it. As they waited for their backup to arrive, the man and the woman stared silently across the street.<p>

"This doesn't feel right, Jen," the male driver said, cutting the engine and slipping the keys into his pocket. "We shouldn't have to do this."

Jen sighed and shook her head. "I don't like it any more than you do, Matt, but we've been through this. It may not be the nicest option, but at this point, it's the _only_ option we have left. She knew that this was a possibility."

"So we're just supposed to walk across the street, knock on the front door and tear this family to shreds without giving it a second thought?"

"You seem to be forgetting our place in all of this, Matt. We don't get paid to be _nice_, we get paid to be effective."

"I'm not saying I won't do it. I'm just saying I don't want to, and I don't like it. Not one bit."

"Oh for God's sake, Matthew." Jen groaned and pulled down the mirror in the visor to adjust the tight bun in her hair. "Do the world a favor and grow a pair, would you? You'd think they'd stuck me with a rookie, the way you're blubbering on."

"Don't be…"

"You're also forgetting that she knew what she doing from the start, Matt. No one forced her to do what she did. She could have walked away at any time, but she didn't. She knew if it got this far, if this much information came out, we'd have to come after her. She's not innocent."

Jen glanced up in the rearview mirror, caught sight of the Chicago Police Department patrol car pulling up behind them and reached for her door handle. "Pull yourself together, it's go time."

* * *

><p>Abby Kowalski smiled at the roar of laughter coming from the crowd gathered in the dining room. Reaching across the kitchen counter, she pulled the cake stand closer to her and began slowly inserting the birthday candles into her father's chocolate cake.<p>

Her mother had objected to Abby making the cake, insisting that she had plenty of time to do it herself. Abby had been adamant, though, and as she stepped back to admire her handiwork, she was glad she'd done it. Aside from the fact that Sheila Kowalski was already running herself ragged just to keep up with the business at her year-old bakery, making the cake has served Abby's motives too. Now, at least her family would have one good memory of her to hold on to in the months to come.

They weren't going to be easy months. Abby had no delusions about what was to come. If joining Internal Affairs had been hard for her family to deal with, what was about to come out would be damn near impossible for the Kowalski clan. In fact, she fully expected that in a few days, there wouldn't be a single member of her family who would still so much as look at her, let alone speak to her.

"Aunt Abby?"

Abby jumped slightly at the unexpected voice, looking down to find her seven year old niece staring back up at her.

"What are you doing in here, little monkey?"

"Aunt Abby, why are you crying?"

Abby's hands flew to her cheeks, finding that they were indeed wet with tears she hadn't realized she'd shed. Quickly wiping them away, she smiled at her niece.

"Oh, I've just got something in my eye, sweetie. Don't worry about it."

"Are you sure?"

Abby nodded and patted the girl's head. "Hey, Ellen, why don't you an important job for me? Run into the dining room and turn out the lights, okay? We've got to get this birthday cake out to Grandpa before all these candles set off the fire alarm."

Ellen giggled. "There aren't _that_ many candles, Aunt Abby."

Abby arched an eyebrow skeptically. "Oh really? You want to test that theory? Get the fire department out here?"

Ellen shook her head vigorously, laughing as she ran into the other room to turn out the lights.

Abby sighed, resting her hands on the side of the cake stand and taking a deep breath. "C'mon, Abby, pull yourself together."

* * *

><p>"Well it's about damn time!" Richie called out as Abby walked slowly and carefully into the dining room, her father's birthday cake in her hands.<p>

"Watch your language!" Sheila scolded playfully. "Okay everyone, you know the drill, on the count of three…one…two…three…Happy birthday to you…"

As the singing continued around her, Abby set the cake down in front of her father and took a step back. Glancing out the front window, her plastered-on smile faltered at the sight of the man and woman in dark business suits making their way across the front lawn.

_Not now. Not tonight_, she thought as a chill ran up her spine. _Not here. Not yet._

While her family gathered closer around the table, goading her father on as he pretended to struggle to blow out the candles, Abby slipped to the back of the room and leaned against the wall to steady herself. Her fingers found their way up to her neck, fingering the thin gold chain and the ring that had been resting unseen under her shirt for the last week. As the doorbell rang, interrupting the cheers at the table, she shut her eyes and started singing softly to herself, unsuccessfully attempting to briefly shut out what she knew was about to happen.

The last thing that ran through her head as she heard her mother pull open the front door was an unfulfilled wish that the floor would open up and swallow her right then and there.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** Thank you all for the positive response to the first chapter! Keep those reviews coming, I love hearing your thoughts! I cannot promise that all updates will be as fast as this one (in fact, I can almost guarantee they won't all be this fast), but since I had this one already nearly finished, I figured I'd get it up as soon as I could - can't wait to hear what you all think!

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><p>Sheila Kowalski's pulse quickened as she pulled open the front door and came face to face with the four people on the other side. Her family had worked in law enforcement long enough for her to know that dark suits and uniforms was a combination that rarely brought good news. At least she knew that her husband and all of her children were right behind her in the dining room, so it couldn't be the sort of visit she'd had nightmares about for year.<p>

Plastering on a polite smile, she spoke first. "May I help you?"

The only woman of the group standing on the porch – a tall, slender brunette with a sour expression and the severe hairstyle to match – nodded and reached into her front pocket, producing her badge to flash at Sheila. "Agents Jones and Sinclair, ma'am, FBI. Is your daughter here?"

"My…my daughter?"

"Abigail Kowalski, ma'am."

Sheila frowned, her brow furrowing in confusion as her gaze darted back to the two officers behind the agents. "Is this about a case?"

Agent Sinclair – a middle-aged man with salt-and-pepper hair and kind eyes that contrasted sharply with his partner's expression – nodded reluctantly. "In a sense, yes. Is she here, Mrs. Kowalski?"

Every protective instinct Sheila had was instantly on alert. "Abby's not…"

"I'm here."

Sheila whirled around at the sound of her daughter's voice. Her sense of fear and the instinct to protect her child only grew at the way Abby's face had gone sheet-white and her hands trembled. She was so taken by the drastic change in Abby's appearance from just a few minutes before that she barely noticed the two agents walk past her and step uninvited into her home.

"Can I have a minute?" Abby asked hesitantly, her voice shaking as the two agents approached her.

Sheila opened her mouth and nearly responded before realizing with surprise that her daughter wasn't asking her for a minute of privacy with the two agents, she was asking the agents for time with her family.

"Of course." Agent Sinclair responded quickly, cutting off his partner's much sharper retort of, "Sixty seconds, Kowalski, not one more."

Abby nodded solemnly, turning around to find her family already gathered behind her.

"I'm sorry to spoil your party, Dad."

Like his wife, Don Kowalski knew the four people at the door could only mean trouble, so his frown deepened as his daughter wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly.

"What's going on, Abby?"

Abby shook her head and pulled back, the tears already welling up in the corners of her eyes. "Just…whatever you think of me…of this, just remember that I love you, okay? And remember that I'm sorry…I'm so, so sorry, Dad."

As her father watched with growing concern, Abby hugged each of her brothers, whispering similar apologies and pleas for them to remember that she loved them. She kissed her nieces and nephews, smiled reassuringly at her sisters-in-law and finally, with a heavy heart, she hugged Richie, longer and harder than any of the others.

Taking a step back, she had almost turned around when she remembered the chain she wore. With shaking hands, she reached behind her neck and undid the clasp, fighting tears as she turned back to Richie. Looking down at the small diamond ring on the end of the chain, the truth suddenly hit her. After all the fights, all his pleas, all the late nights she'd spent resisting – after all of that, she was realizing too late exactly how much she actually wanted to wear that ring. Barely choking back a sob, she took a step back toward Richie and quickly pressed it into his palm.

"Time's up, Kowalski."

Abby nodded but didn't move, staring down at Richie's hand, her fingers resting on his closed grip, making sure he held it tightly. "Give that to Brody, okay? Tell him…tell him that he was right. He was right about all of it."

"Abby…" Richie's voice cracked, his sister's emotional distress rubbing off on him even if he didn't quite know what was happening yet.

"Promise me you'll do that for me, Richie. Please?"

Richie looked over Abby's shoulder, catching sight of Agent Jones impatiently glancing at her watch.

"Richie?"

"I promise, Abby."

"Thank you," Abby whispered, squeezing Richie's hand before turning around and quickly hugging her mother one last time.

Turning to the agents, Abby squared her shoulders and lifted her head slightly, letting them know that she was ready.

Agent Sinclair nodded to one of the officers and waved a hand in Abby's direction. As he began to speak, the officer stepped forward, pulling Abby's wrists together behind her back.

"Abigail Kowalski, we have a warrant for your arrest. You have right to remain silent. Anything you do say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right…"

Abby tried to ignore the gasps behind her as she felt the cool steel of the handcuffs tighten around her wrists. She couldn't bring herself to look back at her family as Agent Jones gripped one of her elbows and led her out of the house while Agent Sinclair finished reading her Miranda rights.

The door closed behind them without another word, leaving the Kowalski family staring at it in shock, trying to process what had just happened.

Steve was the first to open his mouth, expressing what all of them were feeling.

"What the hell just happened?"


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** Again, thank you for the responses to the first two chapters! Thank you for putting up with the suspense and confusion of the first two chapters - I hope that you'll find a few answers, or at least hints of answers, in this chapter. Can't give you everything all at once of course...have to have something to fill the rest of the chapters! Looking forward to hearing all of your thoughts on this chapter!

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><p>Adrenaline was coursing through Richie's body as he stormed down the hallway to Brody's apartment a few hours later. It seemed that every ounce of anger and confusion he had about what had just happened at his parents' was now directed at his ex-partner.<p>

"Brody!" Richie pounded on the door loudly enough that he was sure the neighbors would be complaining in the morning. "Open the damn door, Brody! I know you're in there!"

"Jesus Christ, Richie, are you trying to wake the dead?" Richie stopped pounding the door long enough to turn around and find Brody standing behind him.

"Where the hell have you been?"

Brody frowned and eyed Richie skeptically, his voice slow and cautious when he finally answered. "Working. I got pulled into some overtime." Brody noticed the way Richie's hands were shaking and his frown deepened. "Wait a sec…you're not drunk again, are you?"

Richie clenched his jaw tightly and reached into the pocket of jeans, pulling out the ring and the chain Abby had given him.

Brody's eyes grew wide when realized what Richie was holding. "Where'd you get that?"

"From my sister. Care to explain what the hell it is?"

"It's a ring."

Richie's fist hit the door so quickly Brody almost jumped in surprise. "No shit, it's a ring. How did Abby get it?"

"Richie, you need to calm down." Brody took one very cautious step closer to Richie and the door. "The hallway is not the place for this."

"Where the hell did she get it, Brody?" Richie snapped.

Brody sighed and shook his head. "I gave it to her."

"Why would you do that? Why would you give my sister a diamond?"

"Because that's what you do when you ask a woman to marry you, Richie. There, are you happy now? I asked Abby to marry me."

Richie narrowed his eyes and glared at Brody. "Do I look happy? When did you ask her?"

"About a week ago. She said she needed to think about it, so I told her to hold onto the ring until she decided."

"And you didn't think to ask me first?"

"Ask _you_?"

"Or my dad, at least."

"No offense, Richie, but I want to marry Abby. Not you, and not your father."

"You should have at least had the decency to ask my dad for permission first."

Brody had to bite his lower lip to keep from laughing at Richie's suggestion. "Permission?"

"Yeah, permission. He's the one who'll give her away, you know."

"Oh for crying out loud, Richie, are you kidding me?" Brody's voice rose just a bit as he felt himself getting angry on Abby's behalf. "It's the twenty-first century, not 1850! I'm not negotiating a dowry or offering twenty goats and dairy cow for a bride! In case you hadn't noticed, your sister is a grown woman, not some possession for your family to give away. So you'll have to excuse me if I know Abby well enough to know that the only _permission_ I need to marry your sister is hers."

Richie cocked his head to the side and stared at Brody, his lips pursed in careful consideration. "Well I'll be damned," he muttered.

"What?"

"You two aren't just screwing around anymore, are you? You're actually in love with her."

"We both tried to tell you, man, but…"

"But I went all crazy and told you I didn't to hear a word about my sister out of your mouth," Richie recalled. "And I told her the same thing about you."

"Exactly."

"But you really love her?"

"Do you think I would have given her my mom's ring if I didn't?"

Richie looked down at the ring in his hand and noticed for the first time the wear on the band and the old-fashioned setting of the diamond. "Your mom's ring, huh?" Richie paused, glancing briefly at Brody as he remembered the story Brody's sister had once told him about their mother's death when Brody was a toddler. "Damn."

"Yeah, well, I'm guessing she gave it to you because she didn't want to say 'no' in person."

"Not exactly."

Brody arched an eyebrow questioningly.

"She told me to tell you that you were right about all of it. Whatever 'all of it' is."

Brody took the ring from Richie's hand and stared down at it. "She said that?"

"Yeah."

"Then why did she give you the ring?"

Richie shrugged. "Might have had something to do with the fact that she was about to be arrested."

Brody's face paled at Richie's words and his snapped back up to look at him. "Abby was arrested? Tonight?"

"Smack in the middle of Dad's birthday party, yeah."

"Well what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be down at central booking, getting her bail?"

"Breathe, Brody," Richie instructed calmly. "Dad's at central booking as we speak, and he carries a lot more clout around there than any of the rest of us. Mom's calling a couple of her regulars at the bakery who are defense attorneys, and Steve and Donnie went down to the State's Attorney's offices to see Danny Mitchell and find out if he can get us any more information. We still don't even know what she's being charged with."

Brody shook his head and finally unlocked his apartment door, leaving it open for Richie to follow him in. "You haven't turned on the news tonight, have you?"

"Been a little distracted by the whole sister in handcuffs thing. Why?"

Brody grabbed the remote off his coffee table, turned his television on and flipped the channel to CNN. He nodded in the direction of the screen. "That's the reason I was putting in overtime."

Richie furrowed his brow in confusion as the Brody turned the sound up on the image of the city's mayor stepping up to a speakers' podium in the atrium of City Hall.

"_Good evening, ladies and gentleman, and thank you for coming out on such short notice tonight. Earlier this evening the men and women of the Chicago Police Department served more than two hundred arrest warrants throughout our city's districts. Tonight's efforts, which have been dubbed Operation City Sweep, were part of a larger nationwide crackdown on organized crime, and similar operations were carried out in more than a dozen major cities from coast to coast, from New York and Boston to Phoenix and Los Angeles._

_Over the past year and a half, members of our own police force have worked closely with agents from the FBI, the DEA and the ATF to investigate the criminal operations of Luis Mariano and his brother, Felix. I am pleased to let you know that as a result of tonight's operation, Luis Mariano is currently behind bars and will be arraigned tomorrow morning in federal court on more than five dozen charges ranging from narcotics trafficking and arms dealing to armed robbery and murder. _

_While I commend the efforts of the Chicago Police Department and our federal partners, I was deeply shocked this evening to learn that forty-two city employees were among those arrested as part of Operation City Sweep. These employees include the Superintendent of Police, the Deputy Superintendent of Police, and my own Chief of Staff, as well as several patrol officers, detectives, city funds coordinators and others._

_I share the outrage of the citizens of Chicago at…"_

Brody shut off the sound and turned to face Richie. "That's what I was doing tonight."

Richie slumped down in a chair, looking as though someone had sucker-punched him in the gut. "You don't think…I mean, Abby can't be involved in all of that…"

"All I know is, to pull this thing off they put _everyone_ on it. I can almost guarantee you that no one got arrested tonight unless they were part of City Sweep. There wouldn't have been any manpower for it."

"But you know Abby. She'd turn in her own family if she thought one of us was corrupt! No way is she suddenly working for the mob. No way!"

"I'm not saying I think she did it, Richie. Just because they arrested her doesn't mean she did it."

* * *

><p>Abby tried to square her shoulders and stand up just a little straighter as she was led into a holding room in the processing center of the federal facility. As they drove out of the city, the patrol officer who had cuffed her earlier had explained that the FBI had decided it would be too dangerous to process Chicago police officers at their own central booking, so they'd opted to move them to a federal detention center a few miles north. "For your own safety," the officer had explained politely.<p>

_Yeah right_, Abby mused silently. _Too bad I know I'll never be safe again, no matter where I am._

"Hey, would you look what the cat dragged in!"

Abby grimaced at the sight of a dozen vaguely familiar faces in the small room she was now standing in. All police officers, she reminded herself, and all there on the same charges she was facing.

"What the matter, Kowalski? Couldn't get your IA rats to bail you out of this one?"

Abby glared at the man in the corner of the room who'd yelled the taunt. She took a step closer before opening her own mouth.

"Tell me, Parker, did your wife cry when they cuffed you in front of her? Or did she thank them?"

"Why you little…you leave my wife out of this!"

"What? Are you gonna hit me?" Abby had to look up to make eye contact with the man, but she stared him down as he towered over her.

"You're damn lucky I don't fight girls."

"What's the matter, afraid I'll kick your ass?" She reached out and shoved him against the wall.

"Bitch!"

"Jackass!"

"Hey! That's enough, both of you!" An older officer stepped in and pulled the two apart, yanking them into a corner away from the rest of the arrested officers. "Now cool it!"

Before he let go of their shirts, he leaned in slightly, opening his mouth only a fraction of an inch. To anyone not standing immediately next to him, his mouth appeared not to move at all.

"They know there's one," he whispered gruffly. "But not who."

With that, he pushed them both onto the bench along the wall and left them.

Sam Parker shifted his body slightly, turning his head toward Abby and tilting it down so no one would see him speaking. "How high'd it go?"

Abby's eyes darted around the room, settling on the security camera in the opposite corner. Turning her head down so her lips wouldn't be visible to the camera, she whispered back. "I heard they got the supe."

"Damn," Sam muttered.

"Yeah."

"You tell anyone?"

"No. You?"

"No." Abby almost sensed hesitation in his answer, and made a mental note to grill him about it if she ever had the opportunity. "It's not gonna be pretty in here, Kowalski."

"I know."

"They won't keep us out of general population forever."

"I _know_, Sam."

"It's not right."

"You knew what you were getting into when you started, Sam. Don't you dare even think about changing your mind."

"I won't."

"Good." Abby paused for a moment and looked warily around the room again. "Just remember, Sam, it's not just your decision anymore. If you change your mind, if you renege on the deal…you'll get us all killed."


	4. Chapter 4

Abby lay on the thin government-issue cot in the holding cell and stared at the tiny barred window in the corner. The glimmers of pink and orange she saw told her it must be nearly dawn. She supposed that she ought to be grateful for the window while she had it, because she knew after the arraignment hearing, she'd be moved to a standard cell - an eight by eight concrete box without a glimpse of the outside world. She wondered briefly how she'd tell time in there, but then quickly realized it probably didn't matter.

Her hand lingered just above her collarbone while she stared at the ceiling, feeling for the thin piece of gold that was no longer there. She wondered if Richie had given it to Brody yet – if her brother would even do it at all. Abby tried to imagine what Brody's reaction would be. Anger? Hurt? Fear? Maybe all three, she thought solemnly, quickly wiping the tear she felt in the corner of her eye.

_There's no crying in prison_, she scolded herself internally.

With a sigh, she turned her head back toward the wall, shutting her eyes and trying to remember the last time she'd seen him – only a week ago, but it felt like a lifetime ago now…

_Abby lay on Brody's bed, her cell phone in one hand and a take-out menu in the other, absentmindedly humming as she stared at the options._

"_Hey Brody, what do you want?"_

_Brody smirked as he walked out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped around his waist, his hair still damp from the shower. "You."_

"_Not what I meant."_

_Brody shrugged and grabbed her hand, pulling her up so that she was facing him and sitting on the edge of the bed, her legs spread so he could stand between them._

"_Isn't it?"_

_Abby shivered with anticipation as he cupped his hands on the sides of her jaw, tilting her face upward before leaning down and kissing her deeply._

"_Mmm…" Abby moaned into his lips, smiling when she pulled back. "You know that's not what I meant."_

"_You want to know what I want?"_

_Abby nodded warily, not quite sure what was about to happen when Brody took the takeout menu out of her hand and tossed it to the floor._

"_Well, for starters, I want to kiss you every night before I go to bed and I want to wake up next to you every day for the rest of my life."_

"_Sap," Abby muttered as he kissed her again._

"_I want to catch you when trip over rocks that aren't there, and I want you to yell at me when I leave the toilet seat up. I want to trip over the clothes you leave on the floor when the hamper is all of two feet away…"_

"_I do not do that!"_

_Brody smirked and kissed Abby again to silence her. "Yes, you do. And you know what? I don't ever want you to stop, because when the place is clean, it means you haven't been here in a while, and I don't like that."_

_Abby laughed and leaned forward, burying her head in his chest._

"_You know what else I want?"_

_Abby shook her head, watching in confusion as Brody pressed a finger to lips before he stepped back and walked over to the bedside table._

"_Brody?"_

_Abby leaned forward over the edge of the bed, balancing on the edge of her palms and craning her head to catch a glimpse of what was in the drawer he'd opened. As he turned around, carefully holding one hand behind his back, Abby tried to lean back to hide her curiosity. Instead, she managed to lose her balance completely, tumbling forward off the bed._ _Almost instantly Brody lurched forward, getting himself underneath her just before she hit the floor. _

"_Oh my God, are you okay?" Abby gasped in horror as she landed on top of him. _

"_Yeah, I'm…" Brody turned his head to the side and paled slightly. "Oh, shit…"_

"_What? Oh God, did you hit your head? Is it your back?"_

"_No, it's not…" Brody gently pushed Abby off of his chest, coming up onto his knees and running his hands along the floor. "Damn it, where is it?"_

"_Where's what?"_

"_The ring! I must have dropped him when I caught you." Brody groaned and dropped a little lower, realizing the ring must have rolled underneath the bed._

"_The ring?" Abby frowned and dropped down to her knees next to him. "Why did you…? Oh, Brody, you didn't…"_

"_This was not how this was supposed go," Brody grumbled, sticking his head under the bed._

"_Oh my God," Abby sighed, slipping under the bed next to Brody to look for the ring. "Oh my God, oh my god, oh my God."_

_For nearly ten minutes, Abby and Brody silently crawled around on the floor, covering nearly every square inch without finding the ring._

"_Damn it," Brody muttered, smacking his palm into the floor and leaning back against the side of the bed._

"_Were you really going to propose to me?" Abby called out from under the bed._

"_Yeah," Brody said. "Still am, when I find that damn ring."_

"_You really want to be married to me?" Abby asked, popping her head out next to him and propping her chin up on her hands._

_Brody looked down at Abby and smiled. "Is that okay?"_

_Abby sighed. "We've talked about this, Brody. Relationships are complicated enough. Why would we want to add lace and flowers and joint checking accounts?"_

"_You can have your own checking account, Abby."_

"_It's not about the checking accounts, Brody. I just don't know."_

"_I know."_

"_Do you really?"_

"_Hold on." Brody stood up and went back the drawer._

"_If that's another ring, you better hold on tight, because I'm not crawling around for this one."_

_Brody laughed and shook his head, crouching down in front of her and opening his fist to reveal a thin gold chain._

"_What's that?"_

"_It goes with the ring," Brody said, grabbing Abby's hand and pulling her out from under the bed. "If I had the ring right now, I'd put it on this chain and put around your neck and tell you not to answer me just yet. Just hold onto it, you don't have to put it on your finger if you don't want to. Just think about it for a while."_

"_And then what?"_

"_And then someday soon you're going to come to your senses and realize that I'm not those other guys you've dated, and I don't want you to change. And when you do, you're going to admit that I'm right, and let me put that ring on your finger for good."_

_Abby tucked her legs underneath her and frowned at him. "You're right about what?"_

"_About the fact that you love me." Brody wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her up against his chest again. "And about the fact that you do want to marry me."_

"_Awfully sure of yourself, aren't you?"_

"_The confidence masks my deep-rooted fear of rejection," Brody said. "So please don't reject me without at least thinking about it."_

_Abby leaned forward, reaching around Brody's waist quickly before coming back so that she was face to face with him. Smiling, she held up the ring, kissed him softly and handed it to him. "I suppose it couldn't hurt to think about it," she whispered, holding up her left hand. "Will you put it on me? Just for tonight?"_

They'd stayed up half the night talking about dreams that night, laughing and planning and shutting out everything except each other. It hadn't been until she'd seen the two agents walking across her mother's front lawn that it had dawned on her exactly how foolish and impossible all those dreams were going to be.

And as she lay there on that cot, staring at the wall and fighting back tears of regret, she knew that the worst part was that there was no one to blame but herself.

* * *

><p>"Are you out of your God-given mind?" Lina Flores slammed her fist onto the bookcase next to her and turned her head to shoot a glare at the man behind the desk.<p>

Lieutenant Papadol sighed and shook his head. "Lina, sit down."

"I'm not sitting down until _somebody_ explains to me how the hell the feds managed to arrest twenty-two cops without IA having a damn clue anything was going on!"

"Lina…"

"_We_ investigate cops, not them! Where the hell do they get off stepping on our turf? And why are you not on the phone giving them hell about it?" Lina frowned, staring through the glass office wall into the bullpen before turning to her boss. "And where the hell is Abby this morning?"

"Sit down, Lina."

"Why?" Lina asked hesitantly, slowly taking a seat across the desk from Lieutenant Papadol. "Lieutenant, where's Abby?"

"Detective Kowalski was arrested last night as part of Operation City Sweep."

Lina leaned back in her seat in shock, staring silently at her boss for a moment. "Is this some sort of sick joke?"

"I wish it were." Lieutenant Papadol sighed and rested his elbows on his desk. "Our friends at the FBI apparently didn't trust us to collar one of our own."

"Lieutenant, this is absurd! Abby would _never_ be involved in something like that. Not a chance. There has to be something we can do to clear her name, some sort of investigation or…"

"Detective Flores, let me make something very clear – this is _not_ an internal investigation. My orders are that no one in this department has worked or will work on this case. This goes way beyond us, and we're staying out of it. There's nothing we can do."

"Bullshit," Lina snapped. "You just don't want to rock the boat because you finally got your big fish off the streets and you're afraid of messing that up."

"What on earth are you talking about?"

"Bob Barchelli, that's what I'm talking about. I'll bet it really rubs you the wrong way that you spent four years chasing him and the feds were the ones who managed to bring him in."

"Lina, you know as well as I do that Barchelli is as dirty as they come. The bottom line is that he's off the street for good now. Not to mention the fact that Felix and Luis Mariano's operations have been a danger to this city for a lot of years, and this morning they're weaker than they've ever been. That's a victory in my book, even if our department takes a casualty or two along the way."

"You're kidding me, right? Yeah, I knew Barchelli was dirty. I knew it, you knew it, Abby knew it. But if you think for one second that my partner would be involved in something that that…that scumbag was involved with, you need a nice long visit with Dr. Alexander."

Lieutenant Papadol shook his head and grabbed a thick manila envelope from the side of the desk. Reaching across the desk, he handed it to Lina.

"Consider this a gift from the feds."

"What the hell is it?" Lina asked, breaking the seal and peeking inside.

"Tapes. A small sampling of the evidence the government is using to build its cases against a majority of the people arrested yesterday. The feds have hundreds of hours more."

"What's on them?"

"A better question would be what's not on them – or who's not on them. Luis Mariano, Felix Mariano, Bob Barchelli, Abby…they're all there. Tipping the group off to police raids, taking payments under the table, arranging drug deals, running cash for weapons deals, getting paid to let dirty cops slide…"

Lina shook her head vigorously. "No. Not possible."

"Listen to the tapes, Lina." Lieutenant Papadol sighed wearily, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms over his chest. "As much as I don't like to think it, it looks like we're going to have to start accepting that Abby Kowalski was not who we thought she was."


	5. Chapter 5

"_So, uh, how does this work exactly?" Abby's voice shook slightly as she asked the question._

"_It's real simple, babe, you won't have any trouble." Luis Mariano's arrogance was audible in his voice, even over the sporadic static that marred the sound._

"_Okay, one, I am not your _babe_, Luis. Call me that again, and I walk out of here right now and don't look back. And two, simple or not, if you don't tell me what I'm supposed to be doing, I can't do it. Now, I don't have a problem pocketing your cash and not doing anything, but something tells me you'd have a problem with that."_

_Luis laughed heartily. "You're feisty, I like that in my people. Much better than the last one Barchelli brought us, wouldn't you say, Felix?"_

_A much calmer, more controlled voice responded. "I don't care if she's feisty, Luis. I care whether or not she can get the job done."_

"_I can," Abby said. "If your idiot brother would stop messing around and tell me what the job is, of course."_

_Now it was Felix Mariano's turn to laugh. "You're right, Luis, I like her too. Now tell her what we want her to do."_

"_Simple job, really," Luis said. "You're going to steal five kilos of cocaine from an evidence locker in South Chicago."_

"_I'm sorry, what?"_

_Felix chuckled. "A week ago, one of our new, shall we say, 'import partners' – now a former partner, I might add – had the misfortune of running into our friends from the Calderon family on his way to our warehouse. Of course, the Calderon boys are stupid, everyone knows this, so it was no surprise they got themselves picked up by the boys in blue down in South Chicago two days later."_

"_Only problem is, now they've got our product locked up," Luis added. "So really, you're not even stealing it, you're returning it to its rightful owner."_

"_Which I'm sure is exactly how the Chicago Police Department would see it if they caught me. What am I supposed to do? Just walk into the evidence locker and walk out with the goods?"_

"_Basically, yes. I'm sure you'll manage to figure out all the other little details."_

"_And what happens if I get caught?"_

"_You know how that part works, same as it would for anyone who works for us – you get arrested, you plead not guilty. We'll take care of the rest. The Mariano boys, we take care of own, Kowalski, you can count on that."_

Lina felt sick to her stomach as she stopped the tape player and looked up at the stricken faces of the Kowalski family sitting around the dining room table. She'd known it would be hard for them to hear even one of the tapes, let alone all four that she'd just played. She hadn't wanted to be here tonight, less than twenty-four hours after her partner had been arrested in this same house, but Sheila had sounded so desperate when she had called to ask for Lina's help. She couldn't say no, even if it meant breaking their hearts with the truth on the tapes.

"Abby did that?" Sheila whispered, barely trusting herself to speak.

Lina nodded. "I checked our records, the story about the Calderon gang is true, and the coke that was seized in that raid went missing from district headquarters in South Chicago a few days later. There's even security footage of Abby entering and leaving the station the day of the theft."

"Why wouldn't someone have caught this then?" Steve asked. "I mean, this tape is over a year old. If it really happened, why didn't anyone notice earlier?"

Lina sighed. "Because South Chicago is a huge station, dozens of people coming and going all the time, and no one knew to look for Abby in the tapes. And…"

"And what?" Donnie prompted.

"And because there was no forced entry, it had to have been someone who worked for the department, so I.A. was called in. Abby conducted the investigation."

"On her own?" Richie asked. "Where the hell were you?"

"At home with the flu the whole week," Lina said. "Papadol gave Abby what he thought was an easy case she could cover without me. Even if he hadn't, though, she didn't sign the evidence log. I still have no idea how she got in without doing that."

"This doesn't make any sense," Don said, finally speaking up as all the information began to sink in. "I know my daughter. There's no way the little girl that I raised would do something like this."

"You heard her on the tapes, Dad," Steve pointed out. "What the hell are we supposed to think?"

"Something is wrong about this," Don said. "Did you hear what that scumbag Mariano said about Barchelli bringing Abby to them? Abby wouldn't give a guy like Bob Barchelli the time of day, let alone let him talk her into doing work for the mob."

"Hey, wasn't Barchelli already under investigation by I.A.?" Donnie asked.

"What's your point?" Lina asked.

"What if this is part of that? Could Abby have been undercover?"

Lina shook her head. "The thought already crossed my mind, and believe me, I grilled Lieutenant Papadol about it. He swore up and down he hadn't given her an undercover assignment and he hadn't cleared her to do one for any other department. And you all know policy, he would have had to sign off for her to be undercover for anyone, even if it was outside the department."

"All I know is, my daughter would not do this," Don said. "If she wasn't undercover, there has to be some other explanation."

* * *

><p>The next morning, Abby tried to hold her head high as she was led into the small corridor attached to the courtroom, refusing to make eye contact with anyone as she walked past a half dozen men and women in matching orange jumpsuits and took her place on the end of the bench.<p>

"The feds been to see you yet?"

Abby turned her head and found herself looking at Bob Barchelli, the same man who had brought her into this mess to begin with.

"No. Were you expecting them to?"

Barchelli nodded. "They'll get to you eventually, Kowalski, you just don't rank as high, that's why you haven't seen them yet. Got to get the big fish out of the way first, you know."

Abby grimaced. "You flipping, Barchelli?"

"Me? Hell no!" Barchelli said quickly, glancing around. "Can't say it's not tempting, but I don't think I'd like witness protection. I've got a better idea."

"What's that?"

Barchelli grinned. "I'm going to get acquitted."

Abby almost laughed at his arrogance. "And just how are you going to do that? You're sure as hell not innocent."

"Luis has a plan. It's a damn good thing the feds didn't nab Felix too, having someone on the outside will help. You just hang on and don't even think about so much as blinking at a fed. We'll all be out of here before you know it. There's…"

"Hey!" A guard's shout interrupted Barchelli's explanation. "No talking!"

Abby nodded grimly and stared at the wall across from them, more than happy to comply and wait silently for her name to be called for arraignment. One by one, she watched people she'd known and trusted be led into and out of the courtroom. She could tell by the looks on their faces when they came out that the judge was not being lenient with bail, and she couldn't honestly say that she blamed him.

"Kowalski, you're up."

Abby rose quickly to her feet, following the bailiff into the courtroom. She carefully avoided looking into the gallery, knowing she couldn't bear to see the looks on her family's faces – or perhaps worse, to see that maybe they hadn't come at all.

"Bailiff, please review the charges," the judge instructed.

"Abigail Kowalski, sir. Six counts, accepting a bribe as a public official; five counts, tampering with evidence in a criminal investigation; three counts, robbery; four counts, sale of illegal narcotics; one count, conspiracy to transport illegal weapons across state borders."

"And how do you plead, Ms. Kowalski?"

Abby took a deep breath and glanced at the lawyer who'd showed up unexpectedly at the prison that morning and now stood by her side. "Not guilty, your honor."

The judge nodded. "Mr. Sullivan, what do the people request for bail?"

The prosecutor cleared his throat and leaned into the microphone. "Your honor, given the potentially violent nature of the defendant's crimes, as well as her association with a known criminal enterprise with the means to evade authorities, we request that the defendant be held without bail."

"Your honor, that's absurd," Abby's lawyer objected. "My client is a fourth generation member of the Chicago Police Department. She has dedicated her life to protecting this city and its people. Her family is here, her fiancé is here, her home is here. She hardly has the means, let alone the desire, to flee this jurisdiction."

The judge glanced down, flipped through a few papers and shook his head. "Mr. Holbrook, while I appreciate your points, I'm afraid I'm inclined to agree with Mr. Sullivan in this case. While your client may have an exemplary record, these charges represent a particularly egregious violation of the public trust. For the time being, I'm granting Mr. Sullivan's request. The defendant is ordered remanded without bail pending trial."

* * *

><p>Abby sat alone in the holding room on the side of the courthouse, waiting impatiently for the van to come to transport her back to the prison. She'd known what to expect today, but knowing hadn't made it hurt any less to hear her mother crying in the back of the courtroom when the bailiff led her out of the courtroom. She hadn't had the heart to look back to see who was there, but she hoped that at least her father had been there to hold her.<p>

She stood up quickly when the door opened, expecting to find the prison guard ready to escort her out to the van. Instead, the bailiff appeared in the doorway, holding the door open as Lina walked past him into the room. "Five minutes, Detective, that's all I can give you."

"Thanks, Mike," Lina said, waiting until he had closed the door completely before she turned to Abby.

Abby slowly sat back down on the bench, carefully avoiding eye contact with her partner and staring at the ground in silence as she waited for her to speak first.

"You want to tell me what the hell's going on here, Abby?"

"You've heard the charges," Abby said calmly. "I figure they'd be pretty self-explanatory."

"Did you do it?"

Abby glanced up at Lina, who was standing just inside the room, her arms crossed defensively over her chest. Abby recognized the look her partner was shooting at her, almost defying her to lie to her. It was the same look she'd seen her give a hundred cops during interrogations.

"Are you asking as an Internal Affairs detective? Or as a friend?"

"There shouldn't be a difference, Abby. Either you did it or you didn't do it. And either you're going to lie to me about it, or you're not going to lie to me about it."

Abby nodded and sighed. "I did it."

Lina leaned back against the wall and shook her head. "I'd kind of hoped you'd lie to me."

"So you already knew?"

"I heard the tapes. I just want to know why, Abby. Why would you throw away everything you worked for? Everything you believed in?"

"Maybe I didn't believe in it anymore."

"Bullshit," Lina practically spat. "It's in your blood, Abby. You love being a good cop, you love helping people. What the hell could be so worth it to you that you'd throw it all away? Or was it even worth it to you?"

Abby bit her lower lip and looked up at the ceiling, trying to ignore the way Lina's words tore at her gnawing self-doubt. "I don't know. Ask me again in a few months."

"Just tell me why, Abby. Just give me one reason."

Abby shook her head and wiped a tear from her cheek. "I can't do that, Lina. I'm sorry."

Lina had to fight back the urge to lunge across the room and shake Abby, knowing that the bailiff was watching from just outside the door. "Your whole family was out there today, you know. Your mom, your dad, your brothers, even Brody…can you tell any of them? They heard the tapes too, and they still believe in you. Are you going to turn your back on them?"

"I'm not trying to turn my back on anyone," Abby insisted. "I'm just trying to do the right thing here. That's all I've ever tried to do."

Lina frowned and stared at Abby skeptically. "You thought stealing five kilos of coke from an evidence locker was the _right_ thing to do?"

"It seemed like it at the time."

Lina scoffed. "How much did they pay you for that one?"

Abby hesitated for a moment. "Forty thousand."

"Damn." Lina let out a low whistle and shook her head as she pushed away from the wall and turned to the door. "I hope the money's worth it in prison."

"Lina, wait."

Lina turned around expectantly and stared at Abby, who looked up and met her gaze for the first time since she'd walked in the room.

"Where'd you get the tapes?"

Lina frowned in confusion. "Um…Papadol gave them to me."

"Where'd he get the tapes?"

"The FBI. What is this, twenty questions? Do you have a point?"

Abby sighed and shook her head, looking away again. "No. Just curious."

Lina opened her mouth like she had something else to say, but changed her mind and simply shook her head before opening the door and walking away.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N:** Thank you all for your response so far! I love reading all of your reviews and hearing your thoughts on what is going on. I hope you enjoy this latest chapter - please review and let me know what you think of it!

* * *

><p>Abby took yet another deep breath as she sat on her bed and looked around her new cell. Somehow in her careful preparation for every <em>other<em> aspect of prison life, she'd neglected to consider just what it would be like for her to be locked in a tiny concrete box.

"You've got a visitor, Kowalski," a guard announced, pulling open the cell door and motioning for Abby to follow her.

Relieved to be out of the cell, even if it was probably only for a short time, Abby quickly stood and let the guard lead her down to the hall at the end of the cell block. When they got there, though, she furrowed her brow in confusion when the turned to the left, away from where Abby knew the visitors' room was located.

"I thought you said I had a visitor."

The guard nodded and smirked. "You do."

"But I thought the visitors' room was the other direction."

"The public room is," the guard said as they rounded another corner. "Warden must like you, though. Don't usually have new prisoners getting time in the conjugal room."

Abby stumbled slightly, catching herself before she hit the floor and quickly straightening back up and staring at the guard in shock. "The what?"

"Conjugal room. You know, it's where…"

"Yeah, yeah," Abby interrupted. "I know what it's for."

"Alright then." The guard stopped in front of an unmarked door at the end of the hallway. "Room locks from the outside, just like the rest of the place. Time limit's one hour; press the intercom by the door if you want out early."

Abby shot the guard another confused look before nodding and slowly opening the door to step into the room.

"Oh my God," she muttered as she closed the door behind her and saw the man standing in the corner of the room. "Donnie? What the hell?"

Donnie almost laughed at the look of confusion on Abby's face when she saw him standing there. "Don't get the wrong idea, sis. It's the only room in this God-forsaken place without a camera."

Abby's eyes immediately shot to each of the corners of the room, confirming that her brother was right. Finally, she nodded and stepped the rest of the way into the room. Almost as soon as she did, Donnie stepped forward and pulled her into a tight embrace.

"How did you get in here?" Abby asked, pulling back slightly, the tears already running down her cheeks.

Donnie shrugged. "The warden's son was in my class at the academy. I helped him out with a few tips to pass his shooting quals, and now the guy feels like he owes me."

"I'm really glad he does."

Donnie frowned as he noticed her disheveled hair, the dark circles under her eyes, the way her hands were shaking and she looked like she hadn't slept in days. "Are you okay, Abs?"

"I'm fine."

"You don't look fine."

Abby shook her head. "I'm locked in a concrete box twenty-one and a half hours a day, Donnie. No windows. It's basically my worst nightmare."

"Shit, Abby, I didn't even think about the claustrophobia."

Abby shrugged. "Neither did I. I thought I'd prepared for everything but I didn't…"

"Abby, did you know this was going to happen?"

Abby nodded sheepishly.

"What the hell, Abby? You couldn't have warned us? Given the family some time to prepare? Did you even think about what this would do to Mom? To all of us?"

"Of course I did! Donnie, don't you think if there was some way I could have avoided this, I would have?"

"I know how you could have avoided this," Donnie said. "How about not working for the mob?"

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"I heard the tapes Lina had, and I know there are more, Abby. Are you saying that's not you on those tapes? Because I'm pretty sure I know my baby sister's voice when I hear it."

"See, that's the problem here!" Abby exclaimed in exasperation. "I'm going to be thirty-four years old in a few months, Donnie. I am _not_ a baby anymore, and I can make my own decisions."

"Is that what this is? You went to work for the mob to prove you were an adult? Real smart move, Abby."

"Do you really think I would do that, Donnie?"

Donnie paused and looked Abby straight in the eyes for a moment. "No, I don't."

Abby sighed in relief. "Thank you."

"Is there something more going on here, Abby?"

"Yes."

"Something you can't tell me?"

"Yes."

"Have you told anyone?"

"I can't. You have to believe me, Donnie, I want to tell you everything. I want you to understand what's going on here, I want you to know what's happening. I just…"

"You don't trust me."

Abby groaned in frustration. "No! This isn't about trusting you, Donnie. I _do_ trust you."

"Then just tell me, Abby," Donnie pleaded. "Make me understand."

"I _can't_," Abby said. "This isn't just about me, Donnie. If it was, I'd tell you in a heartbeat. But this is bigger than me, bigger than our family…I can't…"

Abby couldn't finish her sentence as she broke down in tears. Donnie sighed as he pulled her into his arms again and let her cry on his shoulder while he held her tight.

"Are we ever going to know what the hell's going on?" he asked.

Abby nodded, her head still pressed against him.

"Okay," Donnie nodded and kissed her forehead. "I don't like it, but I'll wait."

"Thank you," Abby whispered.

Donnie shrugged. "Yeah, well, that's what a big brother is for, right?"

Abby smiled and nodded. "Right."

"Now," Donnie grinned mischievously. "What's this I hear about you getting married?"

* * *

><p>Lina took another sip of her coffee and the rewind button on her mp3 player, adjusting the earbuds as the recording of Abby's voice started over again. She nearly jumped out of her seat when one of the buds was pulled from her ear.<p>

"What the…?"

"Easy now, babe." Carlos laughed as he let the cord drop and leaned over the kitchen table to kiss his wife. "You still listening to those tapes?"

Lina nodded and sighed. "I'm missing something, I know it. It just doesn't add up. Abby may be ambitious, but she's never cared about money enough to do something like this."

"People change, Lina."

"Not Abby."

Carlos frowned and poured himself a cup of coffee before taking a seat across the table from Lina. "Why not?"

"Because I know her." Lina hesitated for a moment. "Or at least I thought I did. She's my partner, Carlos. She's my friend. I've spent time with her family. Her mother babysits our kids. For God's sake, Abby delivered little Carlos in the backseat of a patrol car on the Dan Ryan expressway! You can't convince that that woman was working for the mob. It just doesn't make sense."

"The tapes are pretty convincing."

Lina shook her head. "Something's missing and I'm going to figure out what it is. I have to. You should have seen her at the arraignment yesterday, Carlos. She looked _awful_. I don't know how she's going to make it in prison."

"Didn't she get bail?"

"Nope. I don't know why they bothered bringing everyone in one by one, either, because the judge denied them all bail. Every single person associated with the Mariano case was remanded."

"Even the low level players?" Carlos asked in surprise.

"Everyone," Lina repeated.

"That's unusual."

"Tell me about it," Lina pulled the second earbud from her other ear and tossed the cords onto the table. "I can't even think about this anymore. Tell me about something else."

"We wrapped our latest undercover op last night," Carlos said. "So I'm back to regular patrol for at least a month until something else comes up."

"Does that mean I can cancel the sitter for the next few weeks?"

Carlos laughed. "Sure. Guess that's one way to look on the bright side."

"Don't worry, you won't have to put up with your warm, comfortable bed and your poor, lonely wife for long." Lina smiled and shook her head. "I'm sure you'll be back out on the cold, dark, dirty streets soon enough."

"Hey now, you know I love being here with you and kids, Lina," Carlos assured her. "There's just something about that feeling when you wrap a case, and some scumbag perp thinks he's going to walk until that moment when he sees you walk into the courtroom to testify or he hears the tape from the wire you wore and he realizes he's cooked. There's nothing quite…"

Carlos' voice trailed off as he looked up and saw Lina's eyes growing wider, her coffee mug frozen mid-way to her mouth. "Babe? You alright?"

"That's it!" Lina exclaimed, slamming the mug back onto the table. "Oh my God, why didn't I see it earlier?"

"See what?" Carlos asked in confusion.

"She was trying to tell me, but I didn't get it."

"Who?"

"Abby! She was trying to tell me what was going on yesterday, but I didn't get it. Oh my God, how could I have not seen it?"

Carlos frowned. "Start at the beginning for me, babe. What was Abby trying to tell you?"

Lina took a deep breath. "When I saw her yesterday, Abby asked me where I got the tapes. I told her from the FBI, but that wasn't what she was asking. How did the FBI get the tapes? That's what she wanted me to answer, that's what she was trying to tell me!"

"You lost me, babe. Why does Abby care where the FBI got the tapes?"

"Not where, _how_. How did they get hundreds of hours of recordings of the Mariano brothers? The tapes were from dozens of different locations, no way could they have had a bug in all of those buildings."

Carlos' jaw dropped slightly as he realized what Lina was getting at. "Someone was wearing a wire."

"Exactly." Lina grinned excitedly. "That's what Abby was trying to tell me. _She _made the tapes!"


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:** Anyone else completely obsessed with last night's episode? I think it was by far the best of the season, and I can't stop re-watching those Abby/Brody scenes! I was so jazzed I couldn't stop writing last night, which is why you all get another update so quickly :)

Just to clarify, the chapters so far were set about a year and a half after the current episodes that are airing, and this chapter jumps ahead five months from that time.

* * *

><p><em>Five months later…<em>

Jennifer Jones leaned back in her chair and shoved the box of paperwork back across the table at her partner. "Is that all we've gotten from the prison op?"

Matt Sinclair nodded and put the lid back on the box. "We all knew it was a long shot from the start, Jen. As soon as we served those arrest warrants, the Marianos had to know that we had someone inside. Mike MacMillan told us months ago that Luis Mariano told him to be on the lookout for an informant. It's not surprising that they've put a tight lid on the prison organization until things shake out. I don't what else we can do."

"Are you sure the State's Attorney's office can't give us more time before the trial?"

Matt shook his head. "I talked to Danny Mitchell yesterday, and he said he's tried to get more time, but they don't really care what we've got going on inside the prison, they're calling our witnesses when the trial starts on Monday."

"Then we have two days to find the Marianos' prison leaks," Jen said.

"And just how do you propose we do that?"

Jen tapped her pen anxiously against the table for a few minutes before tossing it down. "I've got it."

"What?"

"Luis Mariano knows that there's _one_ informant, right?"

"That's what Mac said."

"So what if we give him just one?"

"I'm sorry, what?"

Jen grinned. "It's our ace in the hole, don't you get it, Matt? Mariano knows about one informant, but not all of them. If we give him one, we'll still have three people on the inside when Mariano starts up again."

"You want us to deliberately expose one of our own undercover operatives?" Matt asked incredulously.

"For the good of the operation, yes."

"Absolutely not."

"Why not? It could work."

Matt sighed. "Yeah, and it could get a good cop killed. I won't be a part of that, Jen."

"No one will get killed, Matt. We just have Mac slip a name to Mariano, then we can arrange a fake shooting or something."

"Okay, ignoring the obvious physical risk to our operatives and the emotional toll that would take on their families, if you do this Jen, you're shooting the entire FBI in the foot on every future operation this agency might want to undertake."

"Oh don't be dramatic, Matt. How do figure that?"

"Well, how exactly do you propose we get local agencies to work with us if it comes out that we basically threw a cop under the bus to further our own agency's objectives?"

Jen frowned and nodded. "Guess I didn't think that one through, huh?"

"No, you didn't. It's not the end of the world, though, Jen. Even without the prison intel, this operation is bringing down a big part of one the most dangerous crime families Chicago's seen in a long time. Don't worry, that'll still be a big gold star on your path to director."

"What are you saying? You think I'm only doing this for my career?"

"Jen, you don't do anything unless its good for your career. It's what makes you so successful, and I have no doubt you'll make it to director someday. I just hope you don't leave a trail of bodies behind you."

* * *

><p>Brody cringed at the glare he received from the guard as he handed his gun across the counter at the entrance to the prison. He knew what they thought of cops behind bars, and he knew that Abby's position in Internal Affairs certainly hadn't improved her popularity with the prison staff.<p>

"You know the drill, Officer Brody," the guard said, sliding a receipt and a pen across the counter. "Sign on the dotted line."

Brody quickly scratched out his signature and handed the paper back to the guard, who hit a button on the desk and buzzed open the door to the hallway. "Time limit's one hour. I'll have a guard bring your girl out."

Brody didn't bother with a response, knowing the man was just trying to bait him into a response. The guard on the other side of the door wasn't much better, barely looking at him as he escorted him down the hall to the visitors' room. Without bothering to thank the woman, Brody walked toward the small table in the back of the room and took a seat to wait.

"Hi," Abby said quietly, slipping into the seat across the table a few minutes later and putting her hand on the table.

"Hey," Brody smiled and took her hands in his, leaning across to kiss her softly. "I missed you."

"It's only been a week," Abby pointed out.

"A week's a long time, Abby. Especially when all I get is an hour a week sitting across this table and holding your hand."

"I'm sorry."

"You've got to stop apologizing, Abby. What's done is done. Now we just have to focus on getting you out of this mess. Have you talked to your lawyer?"

Abby nodded. "The prosecutor got another extension at the hearing yesterday. We're looking at another month at least."

"Anything on bail?"

Abby shook her head. "The judge won't budge."

"This is absurd," Brody grumbled. "You're not a flight risk, how can they not see that?"

Abby shrugged. "It's a high profile case. They're being overly cautious."

Brody nodded. "I guess."

"So, uh, Richie told me you scared away another partner last week."

Brody smiled at Abby's not-so-subtle attempt to change the subject. "Yeah, number five since Richie left me. Guess I'm not such a teddy bear after all."

"Baloney. You just miss Richie and keep hoping they'll stick you back with him."

"Well, I got close this time. At least this one has the right last name."

Abby shot Brody a questioning glance and frowned.

"I take it Steve hasn't been to see you in the last day or two?"

"Are you kidding me? Steve's your new partner?"

"You think he's going to be more or less of a pain in the ass than Richie was?"

"That depends." Abby hesitated for a moment. "How do you feel about Dr. Phil?"

"What?"

Abby shook her head. "Never mind. I'm sure you two will be just fine. Steve's…"

Abby and Brody both turned their heads toward the door as a sudden bang echoed through the hallway.

"Was that…?"

"Gunfire," Brody confirmed, reaching instinctively toward his waist, only to remember that he'd had to turn his weapon in at the door.

"Shit," Abby muttered, looking around fearfully as alarms started sounding from every corner and guards rushed from the room, guns drawn as they hurried down the hallway.

* * *

><p>"We need to talk."<p>

Jen looked up and frowned. "Detective Flores. How did you get in here?"

"I can be very convincing," Lina said, her arms folded over her chest as she hovered in the doorway, a thick manila envelope in one hand.

"What can we do for you, Detective Flores?" Matt asked.

"We need to talk about Sam Parker."

Jen frowned and took a deep breath as she stared at Lina. "I'm sorry, who?"

"Don't play dumb with me, Agent Jones," Lina said. "Sam Parker is working your undercover operation on the Mariano brothers, same as my partner is."

"How exactly do you know that?" Matt asked. "Did Abby tell you?"

"Of course not. Abby's far too careful to blow her cover like that. You underestimated Abby's reputation, though - anyone who knows her knows she'd never work for the mob. It didn't take a genius to put two and two together and figure out what was going on."

"So how exactly did you come up with the idea that Sam Parker is involved?"

"When I confronted Abby about what I suspected, she wouldn't tell me much. But she did ask me to look into Sam Parker – and his wife."

"Why would she do that?" Matt asked.

"She wouldn't say, other than to tell me she had a bad feeling but couldn't get anyone to listen."

"Look, Detective Flores, you're obviously a very smart woman, but you're way out of your element here," Jen said impatiently. "Like I told Abby, there is absolutely no reason to suspect that Sam Parker has done anything to jeopardize our operation."

"Wait, Abby came to you with concerns about another operative?" Matt asked in surprise. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I looked into it, there was nothing there," Jen said defensively. "I was not going to risk destroying an investigation we'd spent a year and a half building just so that I could placate her gut feeling."

"How's this for a gut feeling?" Lina asked angrily, pulling out a stack of papers and slamming them onto the table in front of Jen. "That's Melody Parker with Felix Mariano two weeks ago."

"How did you get these?" Jen asked in shock, flipping through the stack of photographs and records.

"Unlike you, I take my partner's suspicions seriously," Lina said. "I've been monitoring Sam and Melody Parker for the last five months. She's…"

Lina paused as Matt's cell phone began to ring. "Sorry," he muttered, pulling out the phone and stepping out of the room.

"We cleared Melody before we even looked at Sam for this operation," Jen said, looking back down at the papers. "She came up clean."

"Yeah, well, maybe she was clean then, but she's dirty now," Lina said. "Bank records show multiple large deposits over the last three months, all from shell companies believed to owned by the Marianos. Phone records show dozens of calls between Melody and various people in the Mariano organization over those same three months. The face to face meetings started two weeks ago."

"How would she even have anything to tell them?"

"Abby thought Sam might have cracked and told his wife about the operation. I suspect she thinks that by selling out to the Marianos, they can get her husband out of jail." Lina paused for a moment. "Or maybe she's just a selfish bitch who saw a chance to score big and sold her husband down the river. I don't know. Either way, if she's told the Marianos who the other operatives are, Abby's life is in danger and you have to do something about it!"

"Detective Flores, I can assure you that…"

"We've got a big problem," Matt said, stepping back into the room, his face ghostly pale and his hand shaking slightly. "There's been a shooting out at the detention center. Sam Parker's dead."


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: **My apologies for not getting this chapter up when I said it would be! I thought it was much closer to completion than it was. This one has really given me fits, it didn't go anyplace that I thought it would. In the end, I scrapped everything that I had for this chapter and started over. I hope you'll like the end result!

* * *

><p>Don Kowalski slammed his fist into the hood of the dark sedan and stared incredulously at the man on the other side. "What the hell do you mean, she's unaccounted for?"<p>

"Sergeant Kowalski, you need to calm down," the other officer said, a clear warning in his voice. "Our tactical teams are still working to secure this facility and account for everyone who was inside at the time of the shooting."

Don clenched his jaw and tightened his first. "You _just_ told me that everyone was accounted for except my daughter. What if she's in there somewhere and she's hurt? If she was shot?"

"Sergeant, we've confirmed from security footage that your daughter was nowhere near the shooting. There were two victims, both male. Wherever your daughter is, she wasn't shot."

"So where the hell is she?"

"Sir, unaccounted for means exactly that," the officer said impatiently.

"How the hell do you lose someone in a prison?" Don ranted angrily. "She didn't just get up and walk out of there!"

"Sergeant Kowalski, we're bringing in every available resource from CPD and the FBI. I can assure you, wherever your daughter went, we _will _find her."

"Wait a minute," Don's jaw dropped as he realized what the man was saying. "You think Abby's a fugitive?"

* * *

><p>Abby was still shaking as she slumped down in the corner of the sparsely furnished living room she'd just finished inspecting.<p>

"Kitchen's clear too," Katrina Roberts declared as she walked into the room and, with a heavy sigh, took a seat next to Abby on the floor, her gun still in her hands. "You think they know we're gone yet?"

"Probably."

"I guess our cover's really blown then, huh?"

Abby leaned her head back against the wall and sighed. "Kat, our cover was blown long before the shooting started."

"How do you figure that?"

"You said Mac was shot too, right?"

Kat nodded. "Not fatally, the guards got to the shooter before he could take the kill shot."

"Mike MacMillan was one of Luis' top aides," Abby said. "If Sam's wife knew about Mac's involvement, no way did she not know about us – and whatever Felix offered her to talk, I guarantee you it was good enough that she didn't spare a single detail."

"Why are you so sure it was his wife who talked?"

Abby almost smiled at Kat's naïveté. "Because Melody Parker loved the idea of being married to a cop, but I highly doubt she ever loved him. She couldn't handle him being arrested, threatened to leave him and when he was begging her to stay, he cracked and told her everything. He admitted it to me a few weeks ago. And Melody saw an opportunity to get rich and get away, so she took it. I don't think it ever crossed her mind that she was going to get her husband killed, but I don't think she'll lose much sleep over it, either."

"How do you know so much about her? I didn't think you knew Sam before we started this op."

"I didn't. I did a little digging when he joined the team."

"You did?"

"If I'm putting my life in someone's hands, you'd better damn well be sure I know their weaknesses."

Kat frowned. "Did you investigate me too?"

"Of course."

"Was I supposed to do that?" Kat looked distressed and Abby almost smiled again. "I'll have to remember that for next time."

Abby shook her head and looked away. Kat had been a rookie when the FBI had recruited her two years ago, eager to make a difference and make her mark early in her career. Abby didn't have the heart to tell her that for the two of them, there almost certainly wouldn't be a next time.

* * *

><p>Brody slipped his gun back into its holster and slid the receipt back across the counter to the guard at the front of the prison. Turning around, he was startled to find himself facing two men in dark suits.<p>

"John Brody?"

"Who's asking?"

One of the men reached into his front pocket and pulled out a badge. "I'm Agent Malloy, this is Agent Sanchez. We're with the FBI's fugitive task force."

"What do you want with me?" Brody asked nervously.

"You were here visiting your girlfriend?"

"My fiancée," Brody corrected.

"My apologies," Agent Malloy said. "And can you tell us where Ms. Kowalski went after the shooting began?"

"Really couldn't say," Brody lied. "It got kind of crazy in there, people going every which way. You know how gunshots tend to frighten people. I guess Abby and I got separated. Why?"

"Officer Brody, are you aware that your girlfriend is presently unaccounted for?"

"I'm sure she's around somewhere," Brody said. "I mean come on, guys, it's a prison. She couldn't very well just walk out the front door, now could she?"

"Of course not," Agent Sanchez said. "Officer Brody, does the name Katrina Roberts mean anything to you?"

"No, should it?"

"She's the only other prisoner not presently accounted for."

Brody shrugged. "Well, I can't say I've ever heard the name," he said, knowing that at least that part was true…

_Brody's heart raced as he followed Abby down the hall, glancing nervously around as their speed continued to increase._

"_Abby, where are we going?" he asked again as they rounded another corner._

_Abby pulled him to the side and turned around to look at him. "Do you trust me?"_

"_Of course."_

_Abby smiled and kissed him quickly. "Then stop asking questions I don't have time to answer."_

_Brody sighed as she grabbed his hand and pulled him down the hall again. Only after they came around the next corner did Brody realize that they were already back at the front entrance._

"_Abby…"_

"_Shh…" Abby whispered, pulling him back into the shadows as the sound of footsteps got closer. _

"_Abby?"_

_Abby let out a sigh of relief as she caught sight of the petite brunette coming down the corridor. "Kat. Where are the others?"_

_Kat shook her head and glanced down at her feet. "It's just us."_

_Abby frowned but nodded. "Alright then. Let's go."_

"_Go?" Brody asked in confusion._

_Abby nodded and stepped forward, flipping up the cover on the keypad by the doors._

"_Abby, you can't just walk out of a federal prison. We're on lockdown. That door doesn't open without a…" Brody's voice trailed off in shock as Abby punched in a few numbers and the door slid open. "…code. Abby, what the hell?"_

_Abby shook her head silently, grabbing his hand and walking through the open door into the lobby, the other woman following closely behind them._

"_Did you get them?" Abby asked anxiously._

_Kat nodded and reached into her waistband, pulling out two .38-caliber pistols and handing one to Abby. "Right where you said they would be."_

_Abby nodded, taking the gun and checking it over briefly. "Let's move."_

"_Abby…" Brody said hesitantly. "What do you think you're doing?"_

"_The only person who can get a gun into a prison is a guard, Brody. If a guard is shooting prisoners, Kat and I aren't safe anymore."_

"_So you're going to what? Shoot your way out of here?"_

"_Don't be ridiculous, Brody. The guns are just a precaution." Abby glanced around the room quickly before nodding to Kat. "Look, Brody, I don't have time to explain, but I have to do this. I promise, I'll explain as soon as I can after things settle down. But you have to stay here."_

"_Hell no," Brody said. "If you're going to do this, I'm going with you."_

_Abby shook her head and hugged him tightly. "I wish you could, John, I really do," she whispered. "I love you."_

"Officer Brody, we _will_ find your girlfriend," Agent Malloy said impatiently. "It'll be a lot easier for you if you just tell us what you know."

"I've told you what I know," Brody said. "I don't know where Abby is, and I've never heard of that other woman. Now, are we through here? I have a shift starting in an hour."

Agent Malloy frowned and nodded reluctantly. "Don't leave town, Officer Brody. We may have more questions later."


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N:** Here's my apology for the delay in getting the last chapter up...a super-fast new chapter! I think this one should shed some more light onto what's going on...and for those who've been asking, there will be an Abby/Brody scene coming up soon, I promise, there are just a few more things that need to be done first!

* * *

><p>"I'm getting the impression the FBI doesn't use this place all that often," Abby called out as she walked through the kitchen, running her finger along the counter and grimacing at the layer of dust she disturbed.<p>

"What gives you that idea?" Kat stuck her head out from the converted walk-in pantry. "The avocado refrigerator? Or this great 1987 technology suite we're running?"

Abby stepped into the crowded room and looked around at the screens that covered the walls. "You get everything set up?"

Kat nodded and started pointing to the screens. "Main server interface. Cameras on the front door, garage, back door, street. No one comes within a hundred yards of this place without being seen by my system."

"This is pretty awesome, Kat," Abby said in amazement. "How long did it take you to set this up?"

Kat shrugged. "Jen had me rig everything up about a week before we went inside. Only took me an afternoon."

Abby laughed and clapped her on the shoulder. "Is it true she had you hack into the internal CPD database?"

"I could have done that in my sleep, Abby."

"Yes, well, we can't all be tech geniuses like you, can we? I see why Jen picked you for the op, though. Wait…is that screen the internal FBI network?"

Kat flushed and nodded. "After what you said earlier, I thought it couldn't hurt to keep my eye on everything. Please don't tell Jen and Matt."

Abby smiled. "You catch on quick, Kat. This is impressive work."

"And speak of the devil…" Kat pointed to the camera feed of the front porch. "There she is."

* * *

><p>"I don't understand," Richie said. "Why would Abby break out?"<p>

Steve scoffed. "You're joking, right?"

"No, I mean I get that prison's not a walk in the park, I do. But she's shooting herself in the foot, legally speaking."

"Not a walk in the park?" Donnie asked incredulously. "Have you even looked at her in the last five months, Richie? She looks like she's living in hell!"

"Metaphorically speaking, she probably is," Steve said. "Think about it. On the inside, Abby's public enemy number one. Among the general population, cops are vilified, you know that. And it's even worse for Abby, because she's I.A., so the guards and any other incarcerated officers are not going to be friendly either."

"It still doesn't explain why she would break out," Don said. "Or how."

"I'd actually really like to know that one," Donnie agreed. "I mean, I've seen the security system on that place. Houdini would have a hard time getting out on his own."

"Then maybe she had help," Steve said. "Brody did say he was going to see her this afternoon."

"When did you two get cozy?" Donnie asked in confusion. "I thought we were mad at him."

Steve shrugged. "You guys are. I've never had a problem with him seeing Abby, and since she seems serious about him, I figured it wouldn't hurt to get to know him better."

"Wait a minute," Richie interrupted. "Please tell me you didn't ask the captain to assign you to my partner."

"He's not your partner, Richie. Hasn't been for two years now."

"That is beside the point!" Richie protested. "That's like dating my ex, Steve. You just don't do that!"

"If you're jealous, you can just admit it, Richie."

"Why you little…"

Don stepped in just as Richie lunged across the living room toward his brother. "That's enough! Both of you! Steve, stop antagonizing your brother. And Richie, get over it."

"Can we get back to the point of this meeting?" Donnie asked impatiently. "We need to figure out where Abby is before the feds find her."

"Well, who would she turn to?" Steve asked. "Other than us, which she obviously hasn't done."

"What about Lina? Has someone called her?" Don asked.

"I left her a message," Steve said. "Donnie, didn't you say you were going to call Mackie?"

Donnie nodded. "She said she went to see Abby about two weeks ago, but she hasn't heard from her since then."

"That just leaves Brody," Richie said, shrugging at the looks he got from his father and brothers. "What? I may not like the idea of him marrying her, but she'd definitely go to him if she needed help."

"And you think the FBI hasn't already thought of that?"

The men turned to find Sheila standing in the doorway.

"You're not thinking like Abby," Sheila continued. "What does your sister do when she has a problem?"

"She shuts down," Steve said. "What are you saying, Mom? She wouldn't go to anyone? She wouldn't trust anyone?"

"I'm not saying she wouldn't trust anyone," Sheila clarified. "But remember, whatever's going on with Abby, she won't tell us because she says it's too dangerous. She's terrified of putting anyone in harm's way because of her. If she's broken out of prison, anyone helping her would be committing a felony."

"And Abby would never let anyone do that for her," Richie said.

"Exactly."

"I'm not just going to sit around and wait to find out if she's alright," Don insisted.

"Oh, honey, I don't like any more than you do," Sheila said. "But we may not have a choice here."

* * *

><p>"You're late."<p>

Jen shook her head as she stepped into the house, closing and locking the door behind her. "That's all you have to complain about?"

"Hey, Kat and I had to break out of a federal prison today, Jen." Abby turned and led the way into the living room. "The least you could do is be here to welcome us."

"I'll take breaking out of prison over dealing with a pissed off special task force."

Abby nodded knowingly. "Fugitive task force looking for us?"

"Not anymore. Hence the 'pissed off' part. You have any trouble getting here?"

Abby grinned. "Nope. Codes all worked, guns were right where you put them, but we never came close to needing them. Where's Matt?"

"Back at the office, trying to calm down your partner. I almost thought she was going to shoot her way into the car and come over here with me."

Abby nodded sheepishly. "Right. Sorry about that. I had to tell her, Jen."

Jen shrugged and looked around the dark room, the late afternoon sunlight blocked completely by the drawn shades. "I can't say I would haven't done the same thing if I thought someone was endangering my operation."

"That's very understanding of you, Jen," Abby said in surprise. "What aren't you telling me?"

"Nothing."

"Jen…"

Jen sighed and nodded. "Mike MacMillan died on the operating table twenty minutes ago."

"Damn it," Abby muttered.

"I'm sorry, Abby," Jen said sincerely. "I know Mac was a friend of yours."

"He and my dad were in the same patrol unit when I was a kid." Abby shook her head. "He was a good man."

"There's something else, Abby."

"What?"

"We're getting word that Felix Mariano put out a kill order for you and Kat."

Abby nodded and sank into a nearby chair. "How much?"

"I don't think that's really relevant here, Abby."

"How much, Jen?"

Jen sighed. "Half a million for each of you."

Abby shook her head and laughed bitterly. "Well, at least we know I'm worth something, right? What happens now?"

"This isn't what we'd hoped, but you know that we did plan for this possibility."

"I know. We talked about it when I first signed on, remember?"

Jen nodded. "This house is secure. The bureau hasn't used it in years, it won't even be on anyone's radar. Luis Mariano goes on trial Monday morning. You and Kat will be first on the witness list Monday afternoon. It'll probably take a day or two to wrap up your testimony."

"And after that?"

"Immediately after your testimony, we'll transfer you into the custody of the U.S. Marshals. You'll be taken to another secure location, processed into the witness protection program and then relocated with a new identity."

"Permanently," Abby added.

"I'm sorry, Abby. We'd hoped if we could shut the prison operation and get both Mariano brothers behind bars…"

"I know," Abby interrupted. "I don't blame you, Jen. It's not like you ever downplayed this possibility. I knew exactly what I was doing when I agreed to be part of this operation. I just…I guess I didn't think about how much I'd really be leaving behind."


	10. Chapter 10

"I need to see my family."

Jen glanced up over the edge of her coffee mug the next morning and shook her head at Abby, who was hovering in the doorway to the kitchen, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Absolutely not. You heard me yesterday, you and Kat do not leave this house until you go to court on Monday."

"I wasn't asking for permission, Jen. I _need_ to see my family."

"And I need to make sure that our two remaining witnesses stay alive for the trial next week," Jen said impatiently. "Or do I need to remind you that two of your fellow officers are dead? And that the same people who killed them want to kill you?"

Abby sighed. "I get that you're worried about the trial, Jen, I really do. But try to see it from my perspective."

"And what's that?"

"Four days from now, I'm going to walk out of that courthouse and cease to exist. Abby Kowalski is going to fall off the face of the planet. I get that it's the only way to keep my family and I safe. But my family doesn't get that, because no one's told them. They have no idea what's about to happen."

"Again, for _your_ safety, Abby," Jen pointed out.

"I have to tell them," Abby insisted. "I have to explain it to them face to face."

Jen shook her head. "It's impossible."

"Just an hour, Jen. Give me an hour with them."

"Abby, I will not let you put your life or this operation in jeopardy because you're having some lapse of commitment to…"

"Don't you dare try to insinuate that I'm not committed to this damn operation," Abby interrupted angrily. "For the last two years, everything I've done has been for your operation, Jen. I have broken every law I ever swore to uphold, all in the name of bringing down Felix and Luis Mariano. I have stolen, taken bribes, sold drugs…I have lied to my boss, my partner, my fiancé, my parents, my brothers, everyone. And I have never once questioned you, have I?"

"No," Jen admitted. "You haven't."

"I have done everything that you have asked me to do, and I have not once questioned what it's going to cost me," Abby said. "So I'm not asking for permission, Jen. I'm telling you, I am going to see my family and Brody before the trial starts. Either you make it happen or I will."

* * *

><p>"Any news?" Sheila asked, setting two plates of scrambled eggs on the kitchen table just as Don and Donnie walked into the kitchen that morning, having spent most of the night down at the station trying to get more information on Abby.<p>

"The feds have called off the search for Abby and the other girl," Don said.

"Does that mean they've found them?" Sheila asked hopefully.

Donnie shrugged. "Means they're not looking for them. They're not back at the prison, though."

"Why would they call off the search if they haven't found them?"

Don shook his head. "What Donnie's saying isn't that they haven't found her, it's that they haven't put her back in prison. The order to call off the search came straight from the director's office – usually an order like that means they know where they are, but they're not telling anyone for safety reasons."

Sheila frowned as she set her own plate on the table and sat down. "Do you think Abby's in some sort of danger?"

Don and Donnie shared a knowing look across the table.

"You do, don't you? You think Abby's in danger."

Donnie sighed and nodded. "A buddy of mine from the organized crime unit called, thought I'd want to know that word on the street is that Felix Mariano is looking for Abby. He's offering a lot of money for someone to kill her."

Sheila gasped. "Oh my God. But I thought…I thought Abby was supposedly working for the Mariano family? Now they want to kill her?"

"There've been rumors for a couple of weeks now that the State's Attorney's office had a couple of insiders set to testify against Luis Mariano next week," Don said. "They were keeping their identities secret for safety reasons, but I'm guessing someone leaked the info. That's probably why Sam Parker and Mike MacMillan were killed yesterday."

"So Abby's going to testify against the mob?"

Don shrugged. "I don't know anything for sure, but that would be my guess."

"And this other girl that's with her? Katrina? What about her?"

"Supposedly she was feeding information to the Marianos from internal CPD databases," Donnie said. "I think I met her a few times when I was still working patrol. Nice kid, but a kid – she's only twenty-four. No surprise she'd flip after looking at life in prison."

"So Abby and Katrina are testifying against the Marianos," Sheila said. "Does that mean Abby gets to come home? Or does she just get a reduced sentence?"

"It depends on the terms of her plea agreement," Don said.

"No it doesn't." Donnie shook his head as he interrupted his father. "She's testifying against the head of one of the most powerful crime families Chicago's seen in the last half century. His brother is still out there running the organization, and they know Abby's identity. There's no way in hell the feds are going to let her come home with a bounty on her head."

"What are you saying?" Sheila asked anxiously. "She'll go to prison?"

Donnie shook his head. "She wouldn't be safe there either. My guess is they're planning to relocate her, give her a new identity. Witness protection."

"No." Sheila shook her head. "Abby would never agree to that. She would never leave her family behind."

"Even if she thought she was protecting us?" Don asked skeptically.

Sheila frowned and hesitated before she sighed and nodded. "How long do you think she'll have to stay away?"

"Mom…" Donnie shook his head sympathetically and reached for her hand. "Witness protection isn't a temporary thing. If she goes in, chances are she's not coming back."

* * *

><p>Abby hummed softly to herself as she moved around the unfamiliar kitchen, using a whisk to take out her frustrations on an unsuspecting bowl of cake batter.<p>

"Abby."

Abby nearly dropped the bowl in surprise at the sound of the familiar female voice in the doorway. Carefully steadying the bowl and setting it on the counter, she looked up and smiled. "Lina. How'd you get in here?"

"Matt let me in." Lina stepped into the kitchen and looked around. "Are you okay?"

"Physically, yeah."

Lina nodded. "I wish I'd been able to get the intel on Melody Parker to the FBI sooner. Maybe we could have…"

Abby shook her head. "It's not your fault, Lina. We all knew the dangers before we went undercover. You don't cross the Marianos and come out unscathed in some way."

"I suppose."

Abby glanced down at the bowl before looking back at Lina. "Listen, I don't mean to sound like I'm not glad to see you, because I am, but…well, why are you here?"

"Because I need to know why you didn't tell me."

"It was too dangerous, Lina. There were cameras everywhere in that prison and if the Marianos were watching them…"

"Not then," Lina interrupted. "I need to know why you didn't tell me from the beginning. Why you didn't let me be involved from the start. Why would you lie to me? Why couldn't you trust me?"

Abby sighed and pushed the bowl off the side of the counter. "I would trust you with my life, Lina. Hell, I'd trust you with my family's lives. This was never about not trusting you."

"Then what was it about?"

"It was about this. All of this." Abby raised her hands and gestured to the room around her. "I knew what the risk was, Lina. I knew what I stood to lose. And I knew if I asked you, you'd take that risk for me, but I couldn't let you do that. You have a family that needs you."

"So do you, damn it!"

Abby nodded, biting her lower lip. "You think I don't know that? It's killing me, the thought of having to leave them."

"And yet you're doing it."

"I don't have a choice anymore, Lina. If I stay, I'm putting them at risk, and I don't know that I could live with myself if one of them got hurt because of something I did."

"So you're really just going to disappear? Go into witness protection and never be heard from again?"

"I hate it, but that's how it has to be," Abby said resolutely. "As long as that kill order is out there, Abby Kowalski can't exist anymore."


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N:** This chapter is a tad bit shorter than usual, but there really was no other place to cut it off, so here it is. I know I promised some of you Abby/Brody in this chapter, but it just didn't fit - I've already started the scene for the next chapter, though! I hope you enjoy this chapter, and the next one should be up in another day or two!

* * *

><p>"Psst…Abby!"<p>

Abby paused as she walked past the surveillance room late that afternoon, taking two small steps backward to stick her head in the door.

"What?" she asked in annoyance.

"Matt wants to see you while Jen's not here," Kat said, not taking her eyes off the camera feeds on the screen.

"Why?"

"Beats me," Kat shrugged. "I'm not your personal voicemail. He's in the living room, why don't you ask him yourself?"

Abby nodded as she continued on to the living room without another word, ignoring the slight annoyance in Kat's voice. At this point, it almost seemed that they'd traded one prison for another, even if the safe house was infinitely more spacious than a tiny prison cell. It was enough to wear on anyone's nerves, and she knew she was getting just as irritable as Kat.

"You wanted to see me?" she asked as she walked into the living room.

Matt looked up from the folder he was staring at and nodded. "Get your coat."

Abby frowned. "I'm sorry?"

"Get your coat," Matt repeated, standing up from his chair. "We don't have a lot of time."

"Where are we going?" Abby asked in confusion, grabbing a coat – none of the clothes in the house were truly hers – from the pile near the door and slipping it on.

"Little field trip," Matt said.

"What about Kat?"

"She'll fend off Jen if she comes back early."

"What are we doing, breaking out of a safe house?" Abby asked skeptically.

"Thirty-six hours ago, you broke out of a federal prison, Abby. Now you're afraid to walk out of a safe house?"

"Thirty-six hours ago I didn't know there was a half million dollar hit on my life," Abby pointed out.

"You think I'd be doing this if I hadn't arranged for you to be safe?" Matt asked.

"I guess not," Abby admitted. "Are you going to tell me what it is exactly that we're doing?"

Matt smiled. "Consider it a pre-trial gift. It was Kat's idea."

* * *

><p>Steve sighed as he hung up the phone in his kitchen and turned back to the sink of dirty dishes in front of him. Much to his chagrin, Gail seemed to think that domestic work would be enough to distract him from whatever situation Abby had gotten herself into. In reality, all it was doing was giving him a headache.<p>

"Daddy?"

Steve turned around and forced a smile on his face. "Hey sweetie. What's up?"

"Can we go to Aunt Abby's today?"

"Ellen, we talked about this," Steve said, trying to keep his voice calm. "Aunt Abby is…"

"Daddy, I'll be eight years old in two weeks," Ellen interrupted, a serious tone to her voice. "I'm not a baby."

"Yes, I know that, Ellen. Are you trying to make me feel old?"

"No, but Daddy, I think we need to talk."

Steve arched his eyebrow in amusement. "Oh?"

"I'm not a baby," Ellen repeated. "I know Aunt Abby's not away for work. I think it's time you stopped lying to me, Daddy."

Steve frowned and stared at his daughter in surprise. "What are you, seven going on thirty?"

"Daddy, you are changing the subject." Ellen crossed her small arms across her chest and stared up at her father. "I know Aunt Abby went to jail."

"Who told you that?"

"Uncle Richie talks a lot when he thinks I'm asleep with the little kids."

"Yeah, well, Uncle Richie and I are going to have a serious talk about him keeping his voice down."

"Daddy, I want to go see Aunt Abby."

Steve sighed and crouched down to Ellen's level. "Sweetie, we can't go see Aunt Abby right now."

"I'm not too young, Daddy. I can handle it!"

"I know you can, Ellen," Steve assured her, hesitating as he struggled to find a suitable explanation for his daughter. "But Aunt Abby isn't at the prison right now. The detectives had to take her away to ask her some more questions."

"When will she be back?" Ellen asked anxiously.

"I don't know, sweetheart."

"Daddy, are you going to get Aunt Abby back?"

Steve smiled and pulled Ellen into a hug. "I'm sure going to try, honey."

* * *

><p>Abby frowned as the car rounded the corner and pulled up behind the building.<p>

"Wait a minute…" she muttered, looking around at the familiar surroundings. "Matt, isn't this too dangerous?"

"Abby, I've been doing this for twenty years," Matt said, shaking his head as he parked the car. "Trust me, this is one of three places that no one in their right mind will ever expect to find you."

"What are the other two?"

"Your apartment and your parents' house," Matt said.

Abby nodded and looked up at the building anxiously. "What's the plan?"

Matt looked around the neighborhood. "Every third car you see out there is one of ours. I've got snipers on all the surrounding buildings, and plain clothes security at every entrance, exit, main floor window, the whole nine yards."

"You've really got all the bases covered, don't you?"

Matt shrugged. "Yeah, well, despite what my partner's opinion might be, I didn't just fall off the turnip truck. I'm actually pretty good at my job. Now, did you want to sit here all day, or did you want to go inside?"

Abby grinned and answered his question by pushing open the car door and stepping out into the street. Taking a deep breath, she looked anxiously around.

"I don't think I've ever appreciated how good it could feel just to stand on the sidewalk," she observed as Matt came around the car and placed a hand on her lower back to guide her toward the apartment building's back entrance.

"I'm sure it would feel even better if we weren't worrying about someone shooting you while you stood there," Matt said, quickly ushering her toward the back door. "I took precautions, but let's not get cocky here, alright? You get shot and Jen's going to shoot me."


	12. Chapter 12

"You really walk up all these stairs every time you come here?" Matt asked, gasping slightly as he reached the final landing in the stairwell.

Abby shrugged. "It's only four floors. Try hitting the gym a little more often, buddy."

"Hey now, watch it. I get enough of that from Jen."

"Why do you put up with her?" Abby asked, jogging up the last few steps.

"I've been running long-term undercover ops almost my entire career, Abby. Jen's the best partner I've had in over twenty years. She's a bitch, don't get me wrong, but she's the best at what we do."

"I get that, but she needs you way more than you need her," Abby pointed out. "You could get a dozen other partners who wouldn't screw up this op."

Matt shook his head. "This is my last op, Abby. I don't just want to not screw it up, I want it to be as successful as possible. When I was putting this op together, Jen's the only agent I met who wanted that success as much as I did."

Abby frowned as she and Matt entered the hallway. "What do you mean, this is your last op?"

"I'm retiring." Matt almost laughed at the horrified look on Abby's face. "I love my job, but I can't remember the last time I spent three consecutive nights at home with my wife and kids. It used to be exciting…now it's just exhausting. It's time for me to move on."

Abby nodded in understanding, growing quiet as they stopped in front of the last apartment in the hallway. Her hands shook as Matt knocked on the door in front of them.

"This is where I leave you," he said, taking a step backward. "If you're not out of here in an hour, or I have even one hint of anything going wrong, I'm coming in."

"Thanks, Matt."

Matt nodded and walked down the hall, waiting until he saw the door open and Abby step inside the apartment before he leaned back against the wall to wait.

* * *

><p>Abby bit her lower lip slightly as she stepped into the apartment and waited as Brody closed the door behind her. She knew Matt had told him everything, and she was mentally bracing herself for his anger as she watched him bolt the door and turn around.<p>

Instead, she found herself slightly off-balance as he closed the gap between them with just two steps and pressed his lips to hers.

"Hi," he whispered when he finally pulled back, smiling down at her as he held her in his arms.

Abby smiled nervously. "Hi."

"Are you alright?"

Abby nodded quickly. "I'm fine, I promise."

"What were you thinking, Abby? Do you have any idea how worried I've been about you?"

"I'm so sorry." Abby sighed and shook her head. "You have to believe me, I never meant for it to get this far. God, this all seemed so simple two years ago. If I could go back…"

Brody pressed a finger to her lips to silence her. "You wouldn't do it any differently, so don't lie and tell me you would."

"How do you know that?"

Brody shrugged. "Because I know you, Abs. You want to have an impact, you want to make as big a difference as possible, and this was your chance. You thought you could help people."

"I never meant to hurt anyone," Abby said. "Especially not you or my family."

"Then don't leave. Stay with me, Abby."

Abby shook her head as she felt the tears prick at the corners of her eyes. "They have a hit out on me, John. If I stay, they won't stop until I'm dead."

"There has to be another way, Abby. You can't think I'm going to let you just disappear, right? Or that your brothers will allow that?"

Abby smiled sadly and pressed her hand onto his chest. "We only have an hour, John. Can't we just pretend, just for now, that we're okay? That this is just you and me?"

"Even if you leave, I will find a way to bring you back," Brody said.

"No." Abby shook her head. "You have to promise me that you'll move on. Find someone to love you."

"Not a chance in hell. Sorry, Kowalski, but you've ruined me for every other girl out there."

"Brody…"

"I love you," he interrupted. "If you think you have to leave, I know better than to think I can stop you. Two years ago, when you couldn't figure out what you wanted, I stepped back and let you figure it out. But what I told you then still stands, Abby. You do what you have to do…I'm not going anywhere, and I am _not_ giving up on you…on _us_."

Abby shook her head and pressed it silently onto her hand on his chest.

"Hey," Brody said gently, kissing her forehead, knowing he'd pushed as far as he could. "Remember the last time you were here?"

Abby nodded and smiled as she pulled back slightly. "The night you proposed."

"I have some fond memories of that night."

"Oh?" Abby grinned mischievously. "Care to recreate one?"

Brody pursed his lips and pretended to ponder the question. "I'm not throwing that ring under the bed again just so you can go looking for it."

Abby giggled. "I was thinking more _on_ the bed than _under_ it, but hey, if that's…"

Abby let out a tiny shriek of delight as Brody swept her up in his arms and quickly deposited her on his bed, hovering over her for a moment to look into her eyes before leaning down and kissing her deeply.

* * *

><p>Richie looked up from unbuttoning his uniform shirt to nod as his brother walked into the locker room. "You working the late shift tonight, Steve?"<p>

"Yeah." Steve was silent for a moment but continued standing just in front of the door. "Hey, Rich, we need to talk."

Richie's hands froze on his buttons and he looked back up. "You breaking up with me, dude? And I thought things were going so well."

Steve glared at his brother's attempt at humor. "We agreed not to tell the kids about Abby's situation until we absolutely had to."

"Yeah. And…?"

"And yet, Ellen knows. She says she heard it from _you_."

Richie frowned. "Okay, you know what? That kid of yours is an eavesdropper, Steve. If you think I'd deliberately talk about Abby in front of the kids…"

"You need to be more careful, Richie," Steve cautioned. "Ellen is very upset about the possibility of Abby going to prison now, and I don't have anything to say that'll make her feel better."

"Yeah, well, welcome to the club, Steve-o. Everyone's upset about Abby right now, and no one has the right words. Get used to it."

"Not when it involves my daughter, I won't. You better watch who's around before you open your mouth next time, Richie."

Richie gritted his teeth to bite back the retort he wanted to spit out. He knew Steve was just being overprotective of his children – Richie figured he might do the same if it were his son involved – but his brother was being completely unreasonable, in his opinion.

He was just about to reply when the radio still strapped to his belt crackled and the dispatcher's voice came over the line.

"Wait a minute," Steve muttered as the dispatcher rattled off the address. "Isn't that…?"

"Brody's address," Richie filled in knowingly, quickly looking over at Brody's untouched locker. "Where is he?"

"I figured he was late."

"Brody's never late," Richie snapped, grabbing his keys out of his locker. "Let's roll, now!"

* * *

><p>Abby sighed heavily as she felt his eyes on her when slipped her jeans back on and turned back to face Brody.<p>

"I do love you, you know," she said sadly, running a hand across his bare chest as he sat on the side of the bed.

Brody nodded and grabbed her hand off his chest, pulling it to his lips and kissing it gently. "Does it make me selfish that I want you to stay no matter what the cost?"

"If it does then I'm selfish too," Abby admitted. "I want to stay, Brody."

"Then stay." Brody wrapped an arm around her waist and tugged gently.

Abby shook her head and pulled back. "You know I can't. If I'm not out in the hallway in five minutes, Matt's going to break down your front door."

"I can…" Brody's voice trailed off suddenly and his head turned toward the window. "Did you hear something?"

"No." Abby frowned and looked around. "What's wrong?"

"I thought I heard something."

"There's nothing out there but a wall, Brody," Abby pointed out.

"And a ledge," Brody said, standing up and turning toward the window just in time to catch the tiniest glint of silver. His heart raced as he turned to reach for Abby. "Get down, now!"

The last thing Abby remembered feeling was his hands on her shoulders, pushing her down as a loud bang sounded and the window shattered, before everything went black.


	13. Chapter 13

Abby groaned as she opened her eyes, a bright light burning her vision as she winced in pain. Quickly running through a mental self-check, she realized she must have hit her head on the corner of the bed. Turning her head to the side, she frowned for a moment at the sight of a dark red stain on the wood floor. In her disoriented state, it took her a moment to focus her eyes and see the scene in front of her.

"Oh my God," she muttered in shock, ignoring the pain as she scrambled to her knees. "Brody!"

Quickly grabbing the shirt he'd discarded on the floor earlier, Abby frantically pressed it to his chest. "Oh God, Brody…open your eyes," she pleaded, not even looking up as the apartment door crashed open and Matt and a team of agents poured inside.

"Abby!" Matt shouted as he rushed to her side. "Are you alright?"

Abby nodded quickly. "Call an ambulance, now!"

"It's already on its way," Matt assured her, trying to take her place over his wound as she shook him off.

"I'm staying, Matt," she said determinedly. "Back off."

Matt shook his head and looked around, his gaze settling on the shattered window a few feet away. "You're not safe here, Abby," he pointed out.

"You think I give a damn about that right now?" Abby shouted angrily. "I'm not leaving him!"

Feeling a slight movement beneath her hands, Abby looked down just as Brody's eyelids fluttered open.

"Go…" he gasped out. "'S not…not safe…"

Abby shook her head. "You're not the only stubborn one in this relationship. I'm not leaving you like this."

"Abs…please…"

"Just hang on," Abby pleaded. "Help's on its way."

* * *

><p>Richie's heart was racing as he and Steve practically sprinted from his patrol car toward the crowd gathered at the front of Brody's apartment building. Pushing their way through the onlookers, they made it to the door just in time for it to swing open as the paramedics wheeled a stretcher out toward a waiting ambulance.<p>

"Brody!" Richie exclaimed in shock, pushing his way past a few remaining onlookers to get to the stretcher.

"Officer, I need you to step back," one of the paramedics instructed impatiently.

"That's my partner," Richie said frantically.

The paramedic hesitated, staring at Richie as though he were sizing him up, before nodding and stepping to the side so Richie could approach the stretcher.

"Brody?" Richie's voice was shaky as he put his hand on his friend's shoulder.

"Richie…" Brody struggled to get the word out. "Abby…"

Richie shook his head. "I'm not mad, Brody. Not anymore. Just…"

"No…Abby's…" Brody tried to take another deep breath as he fought to get his message across. "Upstairs…not safe…"

"Abby's here?" Richie asked in surprise.

Brody nodded slowly, wincing in pain at the movement.

"We have to move him now," the paramedic insisted, starting to roll the stretcher toward the ambulance.

Richie watched as they opened the doors to the ambulance, and glanced anxiously back and forth between the stretcher and the apartment building behind them.

"Go," Steve said knowingly, startling Richie slightly. He'd almost forgotten that his brother had even come with him.

"What?"

"Go with Brody," Steve instructed. "I'll take care of Abby."

"You're sure?"

"Go," Steve repeated. "Call me as soon as you know anything."

* * *

><p>"We need to get you back to the safe house," Matt said, taking Abby's elbow to lead her to the door after the paramedics had taken Brody out.<p>

"That's the only intelligent thing I've heard out of your mouth all day." Jen's clear, angry voice echoed in the quiet apartment as she stepped through the doorway and looked around.

"Jen…" Matt said, a clear warning tone in his voice.

"I'll deal with you later," Jen interrupted angrily. "Abby, let's go. Now."

Abby shook her head. "I'm not going back."

"Don't be absurd, of course you're coming back. You're emotional, I understand that, but I'm not negotiating your safety, Abby. You're coming back to the safe house."

"No, Jen." Abby shook her elbow out of Matt's grasp. "I'm done."

"Abby, don't be irrational here," Jen said. "In less than forty-eight hours, you'll be on the stand testifying against Luis Mariano. You need to be at the safe house. I promise you that you'll be safe there."

As Abby stared at her handler, she felt something inside of her snap. "You _promise_ me? What, you mean like how you promised that my family would be safe? Because you did promise that Jen. Or have you forgotten that?"

"Abby…"

"No, don't defend her, Matt," Abby snapped. "I don't care how good you think she is at her job. When I agreed to be a part of this, you knew that my biggest concern was making sure no one I loved got hurt. You both swore to me that that wasn't going to happen. You swore that my family would be safe."

"No, Abby, we didn't," Jen said. "If that's what you heard, I'm sorry for that. But all I promised you was that historically, the Marianos have not gone after informants' families."

"Yeah, well, that didn't stand up tonight, did it?"

"Technically, it did," Jen said. "From what I understand, the shooter wasn't aiming for John Brody. He was aiming for you."

Abby shook her head angrily. "I can't do this, Jen."

"Abby, you can't back out now," Jen insisted. "After everything you've put in, all the work, all the hours, all the years…you can't walk away now."

"I'll still testify at the trial, you don't have to worry about that. But I can't leave my family, I just can't."

"Abby, you're being completely irrational," Jen snapped impatiently.

"I don't expect you to understand, Jen, and I don't really care if you do. I'm done."

Abby turned away and quickly headed toward the door, nearly running straight into Steve as he entered the apartment.

"Abby," Steve breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of his sister, but his voice still echoes his concern. "Are you alright?"

Abby shook her head as she hugged her brother. "Take me home, Steve."

* * *

><p>Abby glanced around anxiously as she stepped out of Steve's patrol car in front of her parents' house. Before she'd even had a chance to shut the door, Steve was at her side, his arm around her waist as he quickly ushered her off the sidewalk and toward the front door.<p>

"God, I missed this place," Abby muttered softly, leaning into him.

"Yeah, well, everyone missed you here."

Abby nodded, smiling in relief as the front door opened and her mother appeared on the front porch.

"Oh, Abby," Sheila sighed, rushing down the front steps and wrapping her arms around her daughter.

Abby slowly relaxed into her mother's arms, the tears welling up in her eyes as she held her tightly. Glancing over her mother's shoulder, she smiled wearily as she saw her father and Donnie coming through the front door to join them. She sighed as she let her head come to rest on Sheila's shoulder. It never ceased to amaze her that no matter how bad life got, this always felt right. After five months away, she was finally home.


	14. Chapter 14

"You all know there are probably a half dozen cars of federal agents staking this place out, don't you?" Lina asked the next morning as she walked into the Kowalskis' kitchen just as Abby was sitting down to breakfast with Steve and Donnie.

"They've been there most of the night," Abby said with a quick shrug, grabbing a pancake from the stack in the middle of the table. "And they can sit out there until hell freezes over for all I care, I'm not going back to that safe house and I am not going into witness protection."

"Wait, you mean you're not testifying?" Donnie asked in confusion.

Abby shook her head. "I'll testify. But I'm not going to hide like a scared little girl, Donnie. I'm not backing down from this fight."

"They will come after you again, Abby," Lina said cautiously. "Are you sure about this?"

"We can protect her," Steve piped up in between bites of breakfast. "One of the many benefits of living in a family of cops."

Donnie frowned. "Steve, we can't be on her twenty-four hours a day, clearing every location before she goes anywhere, patting down anyone who comes near her. What are we supposed to do, lock her in a room for the rest of her life?"

"What, you want her to go away?"

"I didn't say that," Donnie snapped impatiently. "I'm just saying, we have to think about the big picture here. Where is Abby better off?"

"Here, obviously. Duh," Steve smirked. "Her whole life is here."

"But what good is that if the Marianos can find her?" Lina pointed out.

"Hey!" Abby interrupted loudly. "I'm right here, you know. You don't get to talk about me like I'm invisible."

"Sorry," Steve muttered. "We just want what's best for you, Abby."

"I know," Abby acknowledged sadly. "I'm not going anywhere, Steve."

"Abby, you know I hate that FBI woman, right?" Lina asked as Abby nodded. "So you know I don't say this lightly. She's going about it all wrong, but she's right. You're going to get yourself killed if you stay here - and worse, you might get someone else killed with you. Just look at what happened last night."

"No one died last night," Abby said defensively. "Well, that guy who shot Brody got killed by the FBI, but still…Richie called a few hours ago from the hospital, and Brody's going to be fine. He didn't die."

"Not this time," Donnie said. "What happens next time?"

"How can you say that?" Abby exclaimed. "I would never put him in danger!"

"Not intentionally, maybe," Lina said. "But Abby, if you testify and you don't take federal protection, you're putting everyone at risk, including yourself. You know the Marianos better than anyone in this room, and you know that they…"

"That's enough!" Abby snapped, standing up and angrily pushing back her chair. "I don't have to listen to this. My decision's been made, so get used to it."

Lina sighed in defeat as Abby stormed out of the room and rushed up the stairs, slamming the door of her childhood bedroom behind her.

"She's got to see that we don't _want_ her to go," Lina said, sitting down at the table and slamming her hand down in frustration. "How can she not see that?"

"Well, you're sure pushing the idea pretty hard," Steve pointed out. "I mean, come on, Donnie. This is Abby we're talking about. Our baby sister. Do you really think she'd be better off leaving us all behind?"

Donnie sighed and stared at his younger brother. "Yeah, Steve, I do." Donnie shook his head at the incredulous look he got from his brother. "I'm not saying I like the idea, or that letting her go won't be the hardest thing I've ever done. I'm just saying, it's the right thing for her to do."

"Bullshit."

"Steve, have you ever worked a protection detail for a witness before?" Lina asked.

"Yeah."

"Okay, well, think about that detail," Lina instructed. "How many officers worked it?"

Steve shrugged. "I don't know, fifteen, maybe twenty, spread out over a few shifts."

"And where was that witness allowed to go?"

"No where," Steve said. "He stayed at the hotel, ordered take out or room service, wasn't allowed to set foot on the sidewalk unless we were escorting him to the courthouse."

"If it took fifteen officers to keep that witness safe, what makes you think you can do it for Abby with just your brothers and your father?" Lina asked.

"Not to mention, do you really think Abby would be okay with a life where we didn't ever let her leave the house?" Donnie added. "Because we sure as hell couldn't keep her safe on the job, or even on a walk around the neighborhood, not with all the places a sniper could hide around here."

"She'd kill us by the second week," Steve admitted reluctantly. "If we even made it that long."

"None of us want her to go, Steve," Lina said. "And maybe it doesn't have to be permanent, even if she does go."

"How's that?"

"Well, she'd really only have to stay away as long as there was someone who wanted her dead, right?"

"I guess," Steve said slowly. "What are you saying, we kill the Marianos?"

"Not exactly, but sort of," Lina said. "Look, the FBI's plan all along wasn't just to get them off the streets, it was to destroy their prison operation. They obviously didn't do that, but they've weakened their infrastructure. There's no one to take over their organization once they're gone. According to a friend of mine who works organized crime, unless a successor shows up in the meantime, chances are their territory and operations will just get split up and absorbed by rival families. The chances that any one of those families would keep the hit on Abby is slim…why would they want to fork out half a million - a whole million if you count the him on Katrina Roberts too - for someone who brought down their enemy?"

"So what are you suggesting?" Donnie asked. "We just sit around and wait for Felix Mariano to get arrested and their prison operations to fall apart?"

"We could do that," Lina agreed with a mischievous smile on her face. "Or we could always help them on their way…"

* * *

><p>Abby was sitting cross-legged on the twin bed tucked into the corner of her old bedroom, staring blankly at the wall, when the door opened and her parents walked in. Sheila silently walked across the room and took a seat next to Abby on the bed, taking one of her daughter's hands in her own while Don closed the door and turned to face the two women.<p>

"Abby, your mother and I need to talk to you."

Abby nodded nervously, her eyes darting back and forth between her parents.

"Sweetheart, you need to know that your father and I both love you so much," Sheila said, her voice shaking slightly. "Having you has been the most amazing blessing for the last thirty-four years. The thought of you not being here, of not knowing where you, if you're happy or sad…"

"You don't have to worry about that, Mom," Abby interrupted. "I've already told you, I'm not going."

"And exactly what do you think you're going to do instead?" Don asked.

"I'm going to stay here…well, not _here_ here, as in this house, but here, in Chicago. I'm going to marry Brody, whether Richie likes it or not. I don't know if they'll let me go back to my job or not, but I'm sure I can find something private if the CPD won't take me back. I…"

"Abby…look at me, sweetheart," Sheila gently lifted Abby's chin so her daughter could look her in the eyes. "Think about all of that for a minute. Exactly how much of that do you think you're going to get to do with the Mariano brothers trying to kill you? And don't lie to me, Abby, I already know the answer."

Abby nodded and glanced back down at her feet. "Not much, I guess. What are you saying? You want me to go?"

"Do you remember when you first told me that you were leaving your job and joining CPD?" Don asked.

Abby smiled with a hint of sadness as her mind flashed back to that day. "You were furious. I thought you were going to punch a wall out or something."

"Do you know why?"

"Yeah, because you'd spent eighty grand on my college education and I was going to use it to do the same thing the boys were doing without it."

Don shook his head. "That had nothing to do with it, Abby. I was angry because at least when you were working that business job, I knew you were safe. I knew that when I went to work each morning, I had at least one child I didn't have to worry about ending up in the hospital…or worse. Do you know what my biggest fear is, Abby?"

Abby pursed her lips for a moment and shook her head.

"Burying one of my children," Don said quietly. "There are a lot of things that scare me, but nothing more than that, because I don't think that's a pain I could survive, Abby."

"Dad…"

"I don't want you to go into witness protection, Abby," Don continued. "Not knowing where you were, what your life was like, would be incredibly hard for your mother and I. But we could live with that pain, knowing that at least you were safe. If I ask you to stay and something happens…I couldn't live with that, Abby. A father is not supposed to outlive his children, and I don't intend to."

Abby bit her lower lip and squeezed her mother's hand as she started to cry. "I don't know what to do," she admitted.

"I think you do, sweetheart," Sheila whispered gently, pulling Abby into her arms. "I think you do."

* * *

><p>"Do you solemnly affirm that the testimony you are about to give in the matter now pending before this court shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?"<p>

"I do."

Abby's hands shook as the clerk finished swearing her in and she made her way to the chair in the witness stand. Looking out into the crowded courtroom, her eyes locked with her mother's as she began carefully recounting the past two years of her life for the prosecutor and the jury.

With an occasional defiant glance at the man slouched down in the defendant's chair, she spared no detail of how she'd been recruited, what she'd done, who she'd received orders from. She recounted crimes she'd rather have forgotten she was a part of, described the plots and conspiracies and public payrolls that kept the organization working smoothly. She had an answer and a reason for every hole the defense attorney tried to poke in her story, and she almost smiled when she saw him literally squirm in his seat as she refused to budge from the facts she knew to be the felt good to put it all out in the open after so long.

With her family and her partner sitting in the courtroom, she was relieved that finally everyone who mattered to her would know the whole story. She wished Brody could have been there to hear it too, but she'd put it all in a letter, and she'd made Richie swear to deliver it for her after he was released from the hospital.

Finally, after three and a half hours of exhausting testimony, it took every ounce of emotional strength Abby had left not to cry as she walked out of the courtroom, turning around to take in the faces of her family one last time. With a half-hearted smile, she turned away and let Matt lead her down the hallway.

As they walked out the side door of the building toward the dark sedan that was waiting for her, Abby knew she was approaching her last chance to change her mind. That sedan led to the airport, which led to a plane to the unknown - new name, new address, new life. No more Abby Kowalski.

Opening the car door for her, Matt waited as she hesitated for a moment, looking back longingly at the courthouse before sighing and climbing into the back seat of the car.

As the driver pulled away, she wiped a tear from her cheek. "Goodbye, Abby," she whispered to herself. "Goodbye."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Had to put this at the end so as not to give anything away at the beginning. This is the last "regular" chapter of this story; there is an epilogue which will wrap everything up. Feel free to throw things at me in the reviews for actually putting Abby in witness protection...I promise once the epilogue is up, we will have a happy ending!


	15. Epilogue

Allison Lacy hummed softly to herself as she pulled another batch of cookies from the oven and slipped the tray into the cooling rack. She glanced up as the back door opened, offering a quick smile to the bakery's owner as she walked in, her arms full of bags from the grocery store.

"I think I have everything we'll need for that special order," Maura Sullivan declared, slightly out of breath as she dumped the bags on the counter. "Did I miss anything?"

Allison shook her head. "Not much. Your daughter called, said to remind you that Sammy has a soccer game at four today, and you promised him that you'd be there."

"Damn it," Maura muttered, glancing around the bakery. "There's no way, not with the Richardson wedding cake due tomorrow and the special order cookies being up tonight."

"I can handle it, Maura," Allison assured her. "Go to your grandson's game."

"Oh, I couldn't leave you with all this work. It'll never get done in time with two of us working on it as it is."

Allison laughed and shook her head. It seemed that they'd had this conversation nearly every week since Allison has started working at Maura's bakery nearly five years earlier.

"Maura, a soccer game is what, two hours out of your day? Go, have fun, come back when you're done and you can tell me all about it while we finish decorating the cake. Deal?"

Maura sighed and nodded. "Fine." She reached into the bag and started pulling out ingredients.

"Hey, Allison? There's some guy here to see you."

Both women looked up as Lisa, the teenager they'd recently hired to work the front of the bakery during morning rush hour, poked her head back into the kitchen.

"Don't even say it," Allison said quickly, catching the look that crossed Maura's face.

"What?" she asked innocently. "I didn't say a word. Not one word."

"You didn't have to, I can see the smirk in your eyes. Whatever you're thinking, forget it."

"All I'm thinking is that I've known you almost five years now, Allison, and you haven't so much as looked at a man. It's about time you crawled out from under that rock you're hiding under and rejoined the world."

Allison shook her head and offered a half-smile to her boss. "It's the twenty-first century, Maura. Not everyone needs a man to be happy these days." She quickly untied her apron and hung it on a hook by the door. "I'm taking my lunch now. I'll be back in half an hour."

* * *

><p>Allison was silent as she pulled open the front passenger door of the dark sedan parked across the street from the bakery and slipped into the seat.<p>

The driver glanced over at her and nodded briefly, licking icing from two of his fingers as he popped a piece of a cinnamon roll in his mouth.

"These cinnamon rolls are out of this world" he commented, his mouth half-full. "You make these, Al?"

"How many times have I asked you not to call me that, Tim?"

Tim shrugged. "Maybe a couple dozen over the years."

"Maybe someday it'll sink in."

"I wouldn't bet on it."

"What are you doing here, anyway?" Allison asked impatiently. "I have a lot to do today, so whatever it is, let's get it over with."

"You're no fun, you know that?"

"I don't have to sit here," Allison said, reaching for the door handle.

"Felix Mariano is dead."

Allison withdrew her hand and sank back in the seat. "You're sure?"

Tim nodded. "I've confirmed it with both CPD and the FBI. Rumor has it one of the Calderon boys did him in, same as they did Luis last year."

"So what does this mean?"

"Felix was killed four months ago," Tim said, holding up a hand to silence the indignant protest he knew was coming. "I didn't tell you then because it wouldn't have meant anything at that point. The FBI and CPD organized crime units have spent the last four months confirming that the Calderons and the other families have soaked up all the Marianos' holdings, and that they haven't also absorbed any of their outstanding orders."

"And they've confirmed it?"

Tim nodded.

"So what happens now?" Allison asked anxiously.

"That's entirely up to you. Your agreement with us is good for life, Allison. As long as you want to, you can stay here in Denver, keep your job, your apartment, everything you've established here. All you have to do is keep following the rules of the program."

"And if I don't want to follow the rules anymore?"

"There's no longer a legitimate threat against you," Tim conceded. "In recognition of the significant sacrifice you've made, the FBI has offered to financially assist you in reestablishing yourself if that's the route you choose to take."

"It is."

"You don't want to think about it first?"

"I've been waiting five years to go home, Tim," Allison said. "Give me whatever I need to sign and get me the hell out of here."

* * *

><p>Two days later, Allison stood on the tarmac at the foot of a set of stairs leading to a private jet. She held a clipboard in her hand, and quickly scratched out her signature on one final set of paperwork before handing it back to Tim.<p>

"So, that's it, then. As soon as you get on that plane, Allison Lacy will cease to exist." Tim slipped the clipboard into his briefcase and pulled out a manila envelope. "I think you'll need these, though."

Breaking the seal, she glanced into the envelope, grinning widely as she pulled out a passport and a driver's license.

"Welcome back, Abby," Tim said, extending his hand to her.

Abby smiled and shook it. "Thank you, Tim. For everything. I know I've been a pain the last few years, but I do appreciate it."

Tim shook his head and smiled. "There's an FBI agent waiting on the plane to escort you to Chicago. He'll help you out with any paperwork they need you to fill out, anything you might need to get settled back in."

"All I'm going to need is a cab to my parents' house when we land."

"I'm pretty sure that can be arranged," Tim said, offering her a final nod before she ascended the stairs.

Stepping into their aircraft, Abby looked around and smiled. Leather seats, what appeared to be a stocked mini bar, plush carpet on the floor…someone at the FBI was definitely feeling guilty.

"Well don't just stand there, make yourself comfortable."

Abby turned around and smiled even wider when she saw the man coming out of the cockpit.

"You're supposed to be retired," she said.

Matt Sinclair smiled and shrugged nonchalantly. "Yeah, well, I had a case to wrap up first."

"For five years?"

"What can I say? My wife is a very patient woman."

Abby laughed and hugged her former handler. "Well, I'm just glad it's you here to take me home and not Jen."

Matt shook his head and scoffed slightly as he sat down in a chair and motioned for Abby to do the same. "What? Her royal highness, the deputy director? Nah, she couldn't be bothered with something as simple as a witness transport these days."

"Deputy director, huh? She sure shot up the ladder pretty quickly."

Matt nodded. "She may be insufferable to work with, but she knows agency politics and she's still amazing at what she does. I'm happy for her…plus, now I only have to see her once a year when she flies in on her broomstick for our regional review."

Abby laughed. "Well, I guess everyone got what they wanted after all, then."

* * *

><p>"Hey Matt?"<p>

Matt looked up from his magazine a few hours later. "What's up?"

"When is Kat coming home?"

Matt frowned and hesitated for a moment. "She's not."

"What do you mean, she's not? Of course she's coming home. If the hit on me is null and void, so is the one on her."

Matt nodded. "That's true. And Kat was given the same choice you were, Abby. She's opted to remain in the witness protection program and keep her new identity."

"No way." Abby shook her head. "Why would she do that? Can I talk to her?"

Matt sighed and shook his head apologetically. "You know the rules of the program, Abby. She can't have contact with anyone from her previous life if she wants to stay in the program." Matt hesitated for a moment before reaching into his jacket pocket and pulling out a thin envelope. "Her handler did give me this. She asked that it get to you."

Abby reached out and took the envelope, quickly tearing it open and pulling out a single sheet of paper and a small photograph. Unfolding the page, she took a deep breath and leaned back in her chair to read it.

_Dear Abby,_

_If you're reading this letter, I guess that they've told you that I have decided not to return to Chicago. I wish I could be there in person to tell you all of this myself, so that you could see that I mean it when I say that I'm okay. I'm happy here, Abby, in a way that I never was before._

_I wasn't unhappy as Katrina Roberts, don't misunderstand me. But I never had what you have - you've got your parents, your brothers, Brody, this whole life full of people who love you and are waiting for you back in Chicago. My parents were the only family I had, and they died when I was nineteen._

_Being relocated, being away from the only place I'd ever known as home, was hard at first…but after a while I started to see it as a fresh start for me. And when I did, it got so much better. I started getting involved, making friends…and then I met someone really amazing. We've been married for a little over two years now. Crazy, right? I was so convinced I'd be alone the rest of my life, but now I have a husband. And he came with a stepson and brothers and a sister and nieces and nephews - and last month, we even added a daughter of our own to the mix. I have a family now, Abby, and as much as I would love to see you again, I wouldn't leave them for anything in the world._

_I hope you can understand that, and I hope that whatever happiness you were looking for, you find it when you get back to Chicago._

_Love,_

_Kat_

Abby stared at the letter for a minutes before shaking her head with a smile and looking over at the picture Kat had included. A tiny baby's face with bright blue eyes that perfectly matched her old friend's stared back at Abby as she looked at it. Flipping the image over, she frowned at the words written on the back.

_Abigail Louise - for the last friend Katrina Roberts ever had_

* * *

><p>"So what happens when I get off the plane?" Abby asked anxiously, clutching her duffel bag as she waited for the pilots to come out of the cockpit and unlock the plane's door after they had touched down.<p>

"I've been told we're being met by two detectives from the CPD organized crime unit," Matt said. "They've been pretty active in bringing down the last remaining parts of the Mariano organization. I took care of a few arrangements, but for the most part, they'll be in charge of helping you settle back into life as Abby Kowalski. Your family has been notified that you're arriving, and they're all waiting for you at your parents' house. The detectives will take you there."

"You're not sticking around?"

Matt shook his head. "I'm wrapping up a case, remember? As of Friday, my FBI career is done and you're someone else's problem, Kowalski. I'm taking my wife to Hawaii."

Abby smiled, turning around as the pilots lowered the steps. "Does she know you're going?"

Matt nodded as he and Abby began to exit the airplane. "She does, but she still thinks something's going to come up like it always does."

"Well, I…" Abby's voice trailed off as she spotted the two people standing just a few feet away. "Oh my God."

Matt smiled as Abby's duffel bag slipped off her shoulder and she ran across the tarmac, practically throwing herself into the open arms of one of the detectives.

"Brody," she whispered, kissing him softly, almost reverently, her hands resting on the sides of his face as though she needed the contact to convince herself he was really there.

"Missed me, did you?" Brody asked with a smile, leaning down to kiss her. "That'll teach you to run off and join witness protection while I'm in the hospital."

"But…" Abby looked around in confusion. "I thought Matt said the detectives from organized crime were the only ones meeting me."

"They are."

Abby turned and pulled back from Brody at the sound of the woman's voice from beside him. "Lina," she said with a smile, quickly hugging her former partner. "Wait, you transferred out of I.A.?"

"Well, I couldn't very well trust those idiots in organized crime to bring you back while I sat on my thumbs and did nothing, could I?"

Abby laughed and shook her head before turning back to Brody. "But you…"

Brody pulled a badge from his jacket pocket and flashed it for Abby. "Detective John Brody, at your service."

"But you love working patrol," Abby protested.

Brody shrugged. "I love you more. And Lina's not the only one who wasn't going to sit around and wait for someone else to bring you home. I started studying for the detectives' exam almost as soon as I got out of the hospital. Had to pull a few strings to get an opening in organized crime, but here I am."

Abby shook her head in disbelief as the tears welled up in her eyes. "You waited for me?"

"I meant it when I told you I wouldn't give up on us, Abby. In fact…I think I have something that belongs to you." Abby furrowed her brow in confusion as Brody reached into his back pocket and pulled out his mother's ring, holding it up for her to see before he slowly dropped to one knee and grabbed her hand. "Abby Kowalksi, will you marry me?"

"Yes," Abby whispered as he slipped the ring onto her finger. "Yes, I'll marry you."

Abby laughed as Brody let out a whoop, scooping her up and spinning her around in celebration before setting her back on her feet and kissing her deeply.

"Welcome home, Abby."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Well, there you have it! To everyone who showed interest in this story, through signing up for alerts or writing reviews (and even those of you who just read without leaving a way for me to thank you), I truly appreciate all of your feedback and your support for the story! I had a blast writing it and hearing your thoughts every time a new chapter went up.

And, of course, I'm not done with Against the Wall fiction…I have several new stories in the works, and will probably start posting at least one of them within the next week or so. Three already have working titles, while the fourth is still spinning around in my head without a name yet. Because you have all have been so great with this story, I thought I'd give you a little preview of what's to come (in no particular order...but if there's one you'd really love to see more than the others, let me know!):

**Déjà Vu All Over Again **- Sometimes, the right choice doesn't reveal itself until it's too late. One mistake sends Abby down a twisted, painful path that is all too familiar to certain members of the Kowalski family. (Longer story, 10+ chapters)

**The Better Man **- It's only when faced with tragedy that some people show their true colors. Suffering a devastating loss turns Abby's world upside down and makes her choices painfully clear. (Actually began as the same story as **Déjà Vu**, but quickly spun in a different direction; 2-4 chapters)

**The Magic of Christmas**- Abby makes it her mission to learn the real reason that Brody hates Christmas, and is taken aback by what that knowledge helps her realize about her own feelings. (3-5 chapters)

I have a fourth, as-yet-unnamed, story in the works as well. I don't have a cohesive summary for it yet, but basically, it focuses on Donnie, his relationship with Abby (and, to some extent, the rest of the family as well), and his continued struggle with the news of his adoption. While he seems to have taken it remarkably well on the show, I think that's not the sort of news you find out without long-term emotional repercussions.


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